From "The Case for Doing Nothing/Stop being so busy, and just do nothing. Trust us" by Olga Mecking in the NYT.
This is a topic I've written about many times — it's all under the tag "idleness." I also have a tag, "nothing," but that's a more wide-ranging subject, so the tag collects miscellany... miscellany of a very interesting sort... interesting to me anyway. Speaking of interesting, I also have a tag for "boredom," and I'm putting it on this post because of Ms. Dodgen-Magee's idea of "boredom parties." I don't find idleness boring. Busyness — now, that can be boring, but people fight boredom with busyness. It's a terrible fight, because you're distracting yourself from awareness of boredom and the boredom piles up until it bursts through your consciousness and the feeling is — well, what is it for you when that happens? — hopelessness, weariness, futility... a sense that everything's wrong and you hate it all?
I kind of had to blog this article and not just because it's on one of my big subjects and it's in the New York Times. That's a lot but it's not enough. I'm pushed over because of that niksen business. First, it's funny because I'm just assuming it's pronounced Nixon and the thought of solving your problems with more Nixon amuses me. Second, I've been following the trend of seizing upon some foreign language word to add mystery and style to things that might otherwise come across as mundane and dull. In recent years, I've blogged about hygge and döstädning. Niksen — according to the article — is the Dutch word for doing nothing.
IN THE COMMENTS: AZ Bob said:
When you ain't got niksen, you got niksen to lose.
Posts
47 comments:
Then the Green Nude Eel will support you if you choose niksen.
Taking lifestyle advice - any lifestyle advice - from the NYT is inadvisable.
Niksen New York Times. 'Minimize' by hearing no NYT, seeing no NYT, and most importantly not doing NYT.
I’ve hosted boredom parties for years, though never intentionally.
Americans are SO LAME! Foreigners are SO COOL!
ALL Foreigners are WAY MORE smart and cool than we are! So are their words!
That's why we eat Häagen-Dazs!! it's WAY COOLER than Blue Bunny, right?
Even NAMES are cooler if they're foreign
Would people wear his t-shirts, if his name was Chester Gumby?
Imagine if it was Carl Marks?
"Initiative comes to thems that wait."
Nice to see that the NYT has cleared a small space among the Trump-bashing and anti-semitic articles to include a content-free fluff piece for the ladies.
Something for every kind of urban sophisticate in that New York Times!
When you ain't got niksen, you got niksen to lose.
Americans are SO LAME! Foreigners are SO COOL!
Oh I know! We're k3wL 'cuz we're cooler than the uncool!
That's why we eat Häagen-Dazs!!
It's a fäke näme some that fucking Âmerican Çapitalist cólonizer made up.
Along the lines of taking a boring subject and attaching a foreign word, how about stretching and yoga? Throw in a foreign religion for Americans who’ve lost their faith and it’s pure gold.
I don't find idleness boring. Busyness — now, that can be boring, but people fight boredom with busyness. It's a terrible fight, because you're distracting yourself from awareness of boredom and the boredom piles up until it bursts through your consciousness and the feeling is — well, what is it for you when that happens? — hopelessness, weariness, futility... a sense that everything's wrong and you hate it all?
...it's funny because I'm just assuming it's pronounced Nixon and the thought of solving your problems with more Nixon amuses me... Niksen — according to the article — is the Dutch word for doing nothing.
So, in other words, what they used to say is true?
Dick niksen before it dicks you.
Dolce far niente.
It's a fäke näme some that fucking Âmerican Çapitalist cólonizer made up.
yes, and while that might not make it as Cool as Gelato, it makes it More Cooler than Ice Cream!
When I have the opportunity to do nothing, I meditate. Not for long, tho. It bores me to no end.
THEOLDMAN
These kind of topics are some of my favorite posts on this blog. Very relevant for me too, as I’ve recently been contemplating taking a year off work, a prospect I find both scary and enticing.
There is good in cultivating a quiet space. It gives the brain time to think. It gives you a moment to cultivate the view from my living room window, where the front garden has been growing and blossoming this past month. It gives me time to nuzzle the cat, who's demanding attention.
Of course, it's the media, so it has to tie it to a trend and tell you you're doing it wrong. Next will come the how-to products you need so you can enjoy being bored (black masks? aromatheraphy candles?).
Then the next quarter will come the productivity articles to help you do more work during those boring times, and the cycle begins again.
Living in MediaWorld is exhausting, but never boring.
If you want to know more about this "skill" talk to a serious expert who really walks the walk. Talk to a homeless dude. Say "how do you do it, man. You have so much free time and nobody ever asks you for stuff or expects anything from you. You are truely free." Tell me your secrets."
Reading along, I was convinced that Niksen was going to be a Japanese word. Dutch is the new Japanese!
Now I want a Niksen camera
I got a Niksen camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Gezelligheid away
I'm not into boredom, but my inertia approaches that of a zen meditative state. Laziness as a form of higher consciousness.......I like to binge watch all the episodes of a particular show. This frees me from the trouble and anxiety of having to decide what to watch next. I'm currently re-watching all the episodes of Veep. It's not boredom but neither is it engagement. Our little sleep is bounded with a sitcom.
Garden and household chores are boring and I use them as an ice pack on my fevered, striving brain. How many commenters on this blog and even our hostess, unknown to themselves, have caused the dishes to be done, the shelves to be dusted, the leaves to be raked, the list goes on and on and is boring. I suppose chores could become busyness if I thought about how to do them better. The cleaners come in occasionally and I carefully mimic the way they leave towels and so on so that even when tidying I have that better boredom for which I strive so negligently. The only problem is the way they line up books and magazines in a pile on a straight edge. Sometimes I catch myself wondering if that's what I really want.
content-free fluff piece for the ladies.
Magma is the key to the moon's makeup
Second, I've been following the trend of seizing upon some foreign language word to add mystery and style to things that might otherwise come across as mundane and dull.
Consider the article without the foreign word. It’s certainly not going to be as well-received or considered. It may not make it into print.
Its not about the act, with the word thrown in. It’s about the cool word, with the cultural critique it contains thrown in.
You adopt the actions only because they allow you to keep using the cool word.
This is how the elites continue to maintain their distance from the deplorables.
The most depressing times of my life were when I had nothing to do, and had nothing but time to kill. Now, I couldn't do this stuff. I am happiest when I'm very busy or exhausted afterward. I do not have this laziness "skill". I'm also thankful for not having it. I don't see the what's good about it for someone like me. It would be excruciating. Modern life is so easy, yet everyone complains about how busy they are, but when you look at what is keeping them busy, it's trivia, nonessential and usually non-prodcutive attempts to meet unimportant goals like impressing people. I got news for you. Nobody likes you more for the stuff you acquire. In fact, people despise you more the more you have. Spend your free time helping people who truly need it, or building things that make life better for you and others. Or get drunk and fuck. That's good too.
Yes but do you deserve to be lazy?
And if you do, does your laziness deserve a high-falutin' foreign word?
Some call it “hangin’”
or “chillin’”
Niksen’s the one.
Whenever my daughter complains about being bored (usually because I won't let her go on the screens), I explain to her that boredom is a good thing. Even a necessary thing.
She isn't buying it.
Actually, I think Americans do 'boredom' or 'laziness' quite well.
Or put it another way, we do 'nothing' to the extreme - maybe not quite boredom - but garners the same result this article pretends to sell. Doing 'nothing' sometimes brings about great achievements.
Laziness or boredom?
how about stretching and yoga?
Apparently you overlooked yoga pants!!
Yeah, baby!! Doggie down!!!
I've been telling my clients for years to "Be Lazy" http://www.changeover.com/lazy.html
I pass out "Be Lazy" buttons like candy and get plant managers wearing them along with the troops.
As Heinlein says in his story "The Man who was too lazy to fail" "All progress is made by a lazy person looking for an easier way."
Walter Chrysler said "Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man; he is sure to find an easy way of doing it."
I work my ass off helping others be lazy.
John Henry
Blogger gilbar said...
yes, and while that might not make it as Cool as Gelato, it makes it More Cooler than Ice Cream!
But not as cool as Culver's custard
John Henry
Seems like you can do these kinds of parties only with people you're around all the time. Otherwise you're obliged to "catch up" and invariably the most boring person present takes the floor and never shuts up.
Liquor helps. But we're all cutting back now, so....
In hindsight, one of the happiest moments in my life was when I lived very close to a beach for about three and a half years. I would work, go to the beach, and go out dancing at night and that was it. When I had free time, I read, I listened to music, I went for walks. I would lie on the beach or I would lounge in my balcony. I walked along the shore at least once a day. I would lounge on a balcony on weekend mornings and then drag myself to the water around noon. Life was pretty slow, except for work and the occasional nightlife romp (which happened about once a month maybe?). It was a perfect pace of life for me at the time and it changed my life for the better.
When you're bored and your mind wanders, sometimes you discover extraordinary things.
How about "vegging out". Reminds me of the science project that had us watch a tree grow.
Trying to be bored can be work. Like the sabbath rest day.
Let me suggest a new Great Courses lecture series out on Audible called Thermodynamics: Four Laws That Move the Universe. It is an exciting MIT Professor...or at least he was excited about Thermodynamics.
Amazing how everything moves to balance out the unbalanced stuff and that movement is the Energy that we have learned to use. He starts out saying imagine that we are put down out in nature with no way survive until somebody figures out how to get nature to work for us. Reminded me of the Mayflower Pilgrims landing on nowhere called Cape Cod finally leading to the MIT science and technology, unlike the rest of the world that captured slaves.
When as a young man and in the army, I experienced enforced, weeks long, boredom many times. That usually led to some foolishly risky behavior which I would have been better off avoiding. Mostly though, it was just perversely relaxing.
It's the NYT; I can't be bothered.
I discourage Niksen in Ms. Althouse- it leads to hours and hours without a blog post to read.
Sit in your completely decluttered house and do nothing and you will finally be happy
"Boredom Parties" - LOL. Parties are already boring to me - which is why I stopped going to them years ago.
You won't have Niksen to kick around any more.
A little over a year ago I survived a near fatal illness which left me with some neurological deficits. As part of my recovery I have had to lower my levels of stimulation, no caffeine, no multitasking, reduction of noise etc. For example I no longer have the radio on when I am in the car. I go to sleep without TV or music. I don’t use my ear buds when I’m exercising. I discovered that I feared boredom i.e. lack of external stimulation. After six months of this new regimen it has begun to be a life-style so that I can comfortably sit and do nothing. My doctor says that I was a “human doing” that is becoming a “human being”.
Remember "Mannie the Hippie"? He was a semi-regular on the old David Letterman Show when Letterman was funny. I remember Mannie and Dave were riding around in the back of a taxi and Letterman invited Mannie to "space out" with him. They both sat there quite, facial expresssions blank, eyes partially shut. It looked like fun to me so I tried it, and have returned to it whenever I need to chill (as Mannie would say).
"All material progress is the product of human laziness," says Authoritative Anonymous.
Is Creative Loafing still a thing?
Narr
Works for me!
I call it getting in touch with my inner cat.
Post a Comment