Hello, Section J!

It’s me, I’m back.

Yes, you’ve heard much too much from me this summer.

But a heads up that Kayla sent an email today regarding “summer office hours.” And I continue to think about Section J and what I learned at my recent HBS reunion. One big takeaway: embrace boredom.

I attended Professor Arthur Brooks’ presentation at Klarman. He showed two disturbing slides to frame his talk (sorry that I didn’t have the best seat):

You’ll notice that depression and anxiety began to rise shortly after 2007, when the first iPhone was launched. You’ll see a sad correlation with those who feel their lives are meaningless.

His hypothesis: Smartphones mean that we never have to be bored. They let us keep our brains’ left sides busy. At the same time, we thereby starve the right sides, which is where we contemplate long-term, holistic topics such as our life’s meaning and direction. We thereby can lack meaning in our lives.

His advice was to embrace boredom. He advised that we not take walks or exercise while listening to music or podcasts. He suggested that we go through periodic digital fasts and give room for our brains’ right sides to do their job.

For me, I have long avoided work on Sundays as you know. But I have been pretty bad about disconnecting from my phone. There are too many fly-fishing and foodie Instagram reels! I love learning, and there are so many interesting podcasts!

While in Montana, I decided to do many long drives in complete silence. When I felt the compulsion to check my phone at the airport or when I took a break at the rivers, I didn’t. I just sat there. And I’ve concluded that for me Professor Brooks is right. Sitting in silence let my mind wander. Unfortunately it often went to regrets about the past or anxieties about the future. But it was healthy to do so.

The rumination let me be aware of the topics that bothered me and more important what I wanted to do about them. In many cases, it was to express gratitude which as you know is a key skill and which is why we ended our first START session with that particular writing exercise. In other cases, it was to build acceptance of my shortcomings and those in others.

I’m still early on my journey, and I could use your help. If you ever catch me walking on campus with my eyes glued on my phone, please admonish me. You have my OK!

I look forwarding to seeing you for summer office hours and for when we gather again in September. Until then, best wishes for a wonderful end-of-summer as we all journey together to find deep meaning.

I think meaning is fuel as we strive to be better human beings and be “leaders who make a difference in the world.”

Fondly,

Jo