Can you choose whether you are an interesting person or a dull person? To a large extent you can. There are things you can do to make your company and your conversation interesting and there are things you can do that will make you boring. If you want to be dull try the following list. If you want to be interesting do the opposite:
- Talk a lot about yourself. Tell people about your and your life. Don’t ask questions. Don’t show an interest in other people and above all do not listen to what they say.
- Watch a lot of TV. Do not waste time reading, going out or with hobbies – just keep up with soaps, sport and popular entertainment programs.
- Do the same things. Get into a regular routine and do not diverge from it. Don’t try anything new or adventurous.
- Don’t waste time on books or the arts. Avoid the cinema, the theatre, literature, magazines, new kinds of music or live performances.
- Stay at home. Don’t waste time and money travelling to new places and experiencing different cultures, activities or lifestyles.
- Stick with the same group of friends. Keep to the people you have known for a long time. Do not go out of your way to meet people or make new friends.
- Do not have goals or a plan. Drift along the way you are doing now. Do not set yourself difficult objectives that you might not achieve. Go with the flow and see what happens.
- Never change your mind. Once you have a simple and clear view of the world, stick with it. Do not let new facts or opinions sway you. Stay firmly committed to what you know and brush aside uncomfortable ideas.
- Take very poor care of yourself. Drink a lot of alcohol, eat a lot of fatty foods, and get very little exercise.
How many of these dull rules are you following?
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I feel compelled to add – send epic amounts of time and money on Farmville. An inane Facebook game application which is the most outrageous time-suck ever!
I have my doubts about 2 and 4. It depends on the people you hang out with. I certainly have found myself left out of conversations because I don’t follow Desperate Housewives and heaven knows most people I know couldn’t care less about Vivaldi or Dali. Plus discussing TV can actually be quite fun, don’t you know.
[...] Read it. [...]
Guilty of a few of these, but I take issue with #6, at least in the way that it is worded. I agree that we need to keep meeting new and different people BUT we shouldn’t kick our longtime friends and family to the curb either.
TV can be fun, but it is a common evening-waster. Watching tv as your only past time, does make you a bit boring…
I have my doubts with point 6, making new friends. I have a large group of friends, who all come from different circles and therefore offer different perspectives. More people in my life would be unmanagable. So this one really depends on what and how many friends you already have.
/NR
great suggestions. I don’t think the author is suggestion to ditch your existing friends, but be open to meeting more. and i would go further to say get rid of the TV altogether. I shut off the cable in 2001 and have not regretted it.
Why are people who read lots of books more interesting than people who watch lots of TV? Seriously – what a double standard.
Simple! TV is a medium where you sit and are fed whatever info or emotions whoever controls the TV wants you to see – that is, a direct backup of the basic common denominator of society! It is so bound up in censorship, standards and simple commercialism (it has to cater to the norms by and large and can rarely do anything really shocking) that when you watch it, you just get on their tracks and run on them – end up thinking like them if you are not careful. When you read a book, or maybe go buying DVDs or hunting media/info on the internet, you are doing the choosing, you can find what you want and follow it where you like (at least to a greater extent). Hey – TV can be great. There are some great programs sometimes. But by itself and overall it is a kind of surrender to normality and the continual feeling of having my head manipulated just gives me a headache frankly.
i understand the sarcastic intent behind this article. however, i tried reading it with that true intention in mind, and instead found myself feeling negative and down. i have to say, i’m usually pleased with these articles. This one however, misses the mark so badly, i couldn’t finish reading it.
in short, badly done.
I think we need to get over the ” I don’t watch tv” righteouness. Too much of any one thing can make you boring.
Great list. In my heart, I don’t feel that I practice any. Maybe b/c I spend 2-3 hours in personal development daily?
I got rid of TV 3 years ago. Now I read, meditate, exercise, and do some socializing, but little unless it’s which goal-achieving people.
I am happier, wealthier, and more calm for it.
IMHO, the predictablility of the list far outweighs it’s content.
Nice and short list. Having goals/plans is important to me – can’t see how anyone could be happy without them. Although, that’s just me.
LOL this is exactly my personality .
However i dont have any friends to stick with
them a long time !
Social activities help you to adjust to common values. People who have different ideas may actually be interesting. Therefore I would suggest a new item: “never ever spend time alone”, where “alone” should be taken in its broadest meaning, i.e. not even using books, since books are a form of communication. How often is your close environment really void of all forms of communication? When you’re not talking to someone you’re usually reading or listening music.
Another way to be boring is to write comments that don’t add anything. The OP provoked us into thinking about this, so this does not apply there.
This is a great list, Paul. As I was reading it, I assumed that you were suggesting to choose a fuller life and to moderate our usual activities rather than entirely ditching TV, loyal friends, home time, going with the flow, etc.
I see what you’re saying: love whatever you do but being open to new experiences, people, ideas and ways of being help you grow as a person.
Thanks for the reminder, Paul! :)
Can we add ‘World of Warcraft’ to this list? :)
Totally disagree about TV. I have yet to see an episode of American Idol, Desparate Housewife or Dancing with the Stars, but to my disadvantage! Many times at a social gatherings light conversation starters begin with the ‘latest’ on the TV.
Great post title and a punchy commentary. Thank you – you made me smile!
Number 11: Make a soapbox list, feel exceptional about sitting at home talking about people one doesn’t know, and gloat about one’s supposed tangential intellect.
[...] Lifehack has created a list of nine ways to become an exceptionally boring person. According to these guidelines, a good number of us are decently boring – things like hanging out with the same people, doing the same things and talking about ourselves. A point of contention could be the last on the list about drinking alcohol, eating fatty foods and not exercising much. Although those don’t compose a healthy lifestyle, that isn’t to say that living as such is a particularly boring endeavor. [...]
No one has pointed out the double standard that you *should* be watching movies, but you shouldn’t be watching TV. Television has come a long way– there are a lot of fantastic programs that rival and outdo any film in the “cinema.” Calling it “cinema” doesn’t improve its quality.
There's still the difference that when you track down films (i am thinking DVDs rather than cinema – i don’t do the cinema myself) it is you doing the choosing rather than sitting there being fed whatever the TV chooses to give you. Sure the TV has some great programs sometimes, but fundamentally it is the ability to choose – to explore far and away from anything that would get put out on a mainstream media like that – that is important here. I think this list is blasting those who never do anything other than watch the TV feed . . . and I have to say I am with ‘em there!
I always considered myself boring. And I’m guilty of 4 out of 9 items in that list. *blush*
@Jeremy Johnson hey you always meet new people in WoW. So I wonder if that counts. LoL
I always thought reading books is more boring than watching TV. At least watching TV with friends still develops social contact. When you’re reading a book, you’re alone and you can’t talk to anyone else or do anything else.
To those who don’t like the post, come on, I think it’s funny. HeHe.
I also feel the need to bash television j/k. But I’ve come across this article http://sn.im/uxpkl yet another side effect of watching television.
I don’t even have a tv :P
This is propaganda. Never EVER go to the cinema. Do NOT support these corporations, ever! You’re directly contributing to the downfall of humanity by doing so!
Score on 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9, assuming I can replace the TV on #2 with computer games, since I don’t even own a TV. :P
I can see how these would also apply to being a bad student or bad teacher, too.
** Time off for wise behavior
Let’s focus on laziness. Whose desire is it that I am not lazy? Why it’s yours.
Why do you care? Of course. You’re trying to make me a better person from your (supposed) understanding of what will make me fit in better socially.
Yes, our powerful and rich material culture makes millions capable of living frivolously rather than suffering privations still common on the planet today.
Social pressure — don’t be lazy! —is part of the inverted snobbery of a dying xian nihilism. Lifehack suffers from serious self-righteousness syndrome: sin->guilt->repentance->motivation-through-fear->work.
In antiquity — let’s say in the west between 500BCE – 500CE — a wise person desired a state of cultural life called ‘otium’. Otium was the time which a person could devote to political, social, or learned pursuits at a sophisticated level. (Culture at this level contains the only “society” which interests me.)
Consider Plato. Having wealth, he came to devote his otium to philosophy because Socrates who was a poor stone mason with a penchant for being “lazy” found his otium by doing philosophy out in the open spaces of Athens. He accepted poverty as the price for his self-appointed mission to instruct his fellow citizens by asking them what they knew about justice, piety, friendship.
Otium suffers today from ill-repute because 2,000 years ago xians began to impose their lowest common denominator values on the superior culture of the ancient west. Otium became a capital sin — laziness or sloth.
Other so-called xian virtues like humility, benevolence, mildness, along with hard work certainly make a survival strategy fit for slaves, the poor, the displaced, the overtaxed urban shopkeepers who made up the earliest xian recruits during the first 200 years of the sect’s existence.
Were I bored with myself, I would stop those actions (not necessarily listed above) which make me bored. I accept a reduced standard of living. I turn time not working into otium.
Our culture suffers, not from laziness, but from busyness.
the anti_supernaturalist
If you know what I will do, that means I am a boring one.
I have to disagree with the tone behind this list. The fact is that a healthy, fulfilling life is all about balance, not what you do or don’t do. Each of the items would be better presented as advice on how to live in balance, not an extreme.
Take #2 for example. There is nothing wrong with having a TV series you watch or following a sports team. The important point is rather to not spend all your time sitting in front of the TV and be sure to engage in other hobbies and the outdoors in addition to your shows.
The same could be said for #3. There are some very good things about having a routine to follow. It adds a sense of security and happiness to your life. However at the same time make sure that you try new things along the way and not be afraid to modify your routine when necessary.
I’d like to add: Get a facebook profile
I stumbled upon this list and thought it rather rude. So I’m boring because I have neither the money to go out nor the time to.
I have two children and work two jobs to keep my apartment.
So good of you to think of other people while writing your nasty article. You should be ashamed. Not everyone is young and rich.
I didn’t think they’re be too many negative reactions from this. @Andrew I think you’re right. It’s about balance. There are good stuff on TV. History Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic. Besides I think the goal of the article is that there is life beyond TV and to get to taste that life.
I’m following 3, 5 and 6.
This is so me!!!
Very scarey
So have to change my life,RIGHT NOW
In my experience, what you do doesn’t make you a boring or interesting person, it’s who you are. What you do informs who you are to an extent, but if you’re boring, you’re going to be boring no matter what. I’m “guilty” of most of those points, but I have never once been called boring and I’m happy with who I am. If you seriously think that traveling, not watching TV, and changing your routine make you interesting, you’re probably not that interesting.
[...] 9 Great Ways to be Exceptionally Boring – I feel like I am fulfilling most of those requirements. Okay, folks. I need some more detailed advice on how to be interesting. [...]
Hmmm. I’m guilty of most of that list, and sometimes think of myself as boring and I think I’m okay with that. I’ve definitely stepped out of my comfort zone on occasion, which has given me stories to tell, and I’ve learned that I don’t always enjoy grand adventures.
I find it funny how defensive people are about this list. He’s not looking into your living room at night and criticizing your every move, you know! I think he’s saying that if you find your life boring, then here are some things to examine. I know I definitely need to make some goals. Life usually moves a bit smoother when I do, and I have something to look forward to.
Boredom comes with a slice of depression, get out there
Take dull vacations, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrHLsWegUR8
The list sounds good at first. But wait.
Going to movies puts money in pockets of Democrats! And, I am never changing my mind on that.
Would much rather be out fishing and hunting rather than sitting in a theater (BORINGest of activities) of all things!
New kinds of music? I guess you probably classify Hip Hop as music, eh? No thanks.
Oh well, some of the stuff is OK.
Drinking lots of alcohol makes other people seem less boring. Don’t knock it.
To me this article makes more sense if I switch the title to "How to have a fuller life" and the dos to donts, like "dont watch too much tv". :) that way this a very good summary of things to take care of to have a much more enjoyable life.
[...] 9 Great Ways to Be Exceptionally Boring (by Paul Sloane, 387) [...]
Hip Hop, Democrats, theater? Idiotic statements. Would people classify you as an interesting person? Honestly, would they?
I think you can tell if a person is boring based upon their personality.
Stop reading my diary!
This sounds more like “How to Be a Puritan Goody Two Shoes” than how to be dull, quite honestly. I doubt you’ll find more than two or three of these qualities in a single individual, and no way would you find them all.
Number one is a paradox. If one asks people about themselves in order to be polite, it creates an obligation on the interlocutors to talk about themselves. Thus, they become boring. In other words, one must be boring or be forced to smile and nod while boring people talk. Every human being I’ve met has eyes that light up with joy when he starts to talk about his own blessed self.
I feel that there are exceptions to all the rules on the list, so before people go flipping out over the internet they should make sure that their own insecurities are in check and they’re not just assaulting the author because they may have their doubts about themselves. If you are happy with your life and the way you are living it then you probably didn’t need the justification from this article now, did you?
Talk about reverse psychology.
The work lifestyles of today fuel these habits.
I think if you are not happy with yourself then chances are that there is a more exciting version of yourself waiting to be discovered.