CAREER & PERSONAL GROWTH

If you want to understand yourself, you have to make room for what you don't understand

For many, boredom is associated with something useless. But something meaningful can actually come out of dealing with the meaningless. Boredom holds the potential for change, according to philosopher Rasmus Johnsen.

A man dressed in white with a white coffee mug in his hand is facing a white wall and leaning his head on it. Next to him is a a small palm tree in a white pot.

Text by: Anne Katrine Gottfred Jensen / Photographer: Sofie Hvidtved

We often talk about finding meaning. Meaning in the little things in everyday life, in work and in all of life. But it can actually be very useful to also deal with the meaningless. Because if you want to understand yourself, you have to make room for what you don't understand, says philosopher Rasmus Johnsen, associate professor and vice-dean for Lifelong Learning at CBS.

This is one of the reasons why in recent years he has been researching boredom, which is precisely characterised by a loss of meaning.

"Boredom is a taboo in a world where all possibilities are open and where you can always reach for your phone if you are bored.

Yet there is good reason to take an interest in boredom as a cultural phenomenon. Because boredom can help us understand ourselves and create change," he says and continues:

"I am always careful when saying that boredom can lead to something positive. Because then a demand quickly arises that boredom must contribute something. And if you're in a place where you can't use your boredom for anything, then you're really in trouble," he says.

Therefore, he makes it clear: Boredom is, in its basic form, a negative phenomenon.

He does the same when he teaches experienced managers and specialists on CBS' Master of Business Development, MBD.

According to Rasmus Johnsen, the self-development wave of the past 20 years has basically been about becoming someone else, and with the course "Organisational Understanding and Personal Development" at MBD, Rasmus Johnsen and his colleague Jacob Vase wanted to offer an alternative where it is not about becoming someone else, but about understanding yourself in the context of the organisation you work in. And not least making room for the things you don't understand:

"This is where boredom is interesting, because it's a way to talk about the parts of the work and the organisation that feel meaningless," he explains.

2 pictures of women in staircase: one is resting her head on a bannister while the other, who's upper body part is not visible, is lying on stairs with legs dangling through the bannister.

A demand for meaning

One particular phrase recurs when Rasmus Johnsen teaches:

"We don't want to go anywhere. We want to know where we are. That's the positive potential that lies in boredom."

For example, it can be about discovering that a certain branch of your job is boring.

"Boredom has the potential that when we experience the sickening feeling that enough is enough, there is an aggressiveness and energy that can create something new. Maybe you open your eyes to a new opportunity or experience the world in a new way. That's why it's so important to look at where you are and what in the situation bores you instead of just getting it over with," he says and continues:

"Boredom is a loss of meaning; but it's also a demand for meaning. The moment I realize I'm bored, there's a demand for things to be different. In a work context, you may be thinking about the boundaries of tasks or ways you've understood your role in the organization. Suddenly, you may ask: 'Why is this really the case? Becoming aware of boredom is therefore also allowing yourself to think about things you rarely think about."

Some might argue that people are so busy that there is no time to be bored, and we are used to saying that we are bored because we have nothing to do. But if we are to believe Rasmus Johnsen, boredom is not so much an expression of not having anything to do as it is an expression that what you are doing doesn't make sense. In this way, boredom has a built-in 'bullshit detector'. It can help you understand where in your work there is room for change.

The empty time

In 1852, the word boredom is used for the first time in English as we know it today. And the German and French words began to mean the same as the English. Presumably, this is also true in Danish, explains Rasmus Johnsen. This is interesting because the history of boredom can be an important reminder for us today.

However, the German word "Langeweile" is known far earlier than the 1800s, but in a completely different meaning.

"Originally, it was a positive expression for 'the long moment' - the time of contemplation. The French word 'ennui', on the other hand, had nothing to do with time from the beginning. It was an expression of spiritual suffering. As the English word 'boredom' began to be used, the words came to mean the same thing across languages, combining suffering with time. In boredom, time is an obstacle rather than an opportunity or a resource. So we get a social phenomenon that is about suffering from time that doesn't feel meaningful," he says.

If we look at the development in an even larger time perspective, there has been a shift from an external state to an internal state, Rasmus Johnsen explains.

"In antiquity and the Middle Ages, there are descriptions of what we know as boredom. But there is no word for it, and the descriptions are of external phenomena such as picking your nose, looking out over the countryside or pulling your hair out," he says.

Historically, 'free time' was in contrast to time that was purely purposeful and devoted to work. Free time was associated with spiritual and intellectual freedom.

"This notion is turned on its head in today's boredom. Now boredom is a crisis phenomenon for those who cannot find meaning in their work," says Rasmus Johnsen, adding:

"In a cultural sense, we have forgotten the positive value of non-organised time. Today, we only understand 'unemployment' negatively as the lack of work. But look up the cictionary of the Danish Language and you'll discover that the word used to be associated with openness, freedom and festivity. The history of boredom reminds us that empty time also has an educational dimension. It's no coincidence that the ancient Greek word for 'free time' is the same one we use for our learning institutions today: school."

2 pictures of a person dressed in blue and red, leaning head first against a white stair case in the first picture, and dangling their head and arms over the bannister in the second picture.

Does it hurt to be bored?

But since Rasmus Johnsen believes it can be beneficial to be aware of boredom because what is experienced as empty can generate new meaning, why don't we talk more about boredom?

"We live in a time where self-development is paramount. On the one hand, everything is moving forward, upwards in a rush for all the enthusiasts. And then there's stress and depression on the other. Boredom becomes a funny phenomenon that often goes under the radar. For example, it cannot be treated like stress and depression," says Rasmus Johnsen, who has given many lectures with the rhetorical title "Does it hurt to be bored?".

The answer to that question is not so simple. Boredom can be very serious, but it cannot be treated with medication. On the other hand, boredom can also be the very emotion that protects against stress and depression, because it comes with the demand for meaningfulness before it's too late, explains Rasmus Johnsen.

According to him, boredom can be a good teacher if you learn to listen:

"The more boredom intrudes, the more empty and meaningless everyday life and its chores seem. But this sentence can also be read the other way around: The more meaningless life seems, the more boredom intrudes with the demand for something else."

Associate Professor, Doctoral Associate and Associate Dean for CBS Lifelong Learning at CBS, Rasmus' doctoral thesis focused on stress and depression in a historical perspective, and this work led to his current research focusing on boredom. He teaches in the Master of Business Development (MBD) program.

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