Work Is Boring—Use It

Let Your Zoom Ennui Inspire You to Change Your Life, or the World

Work is boring.

I expect many of you will disagree. You’ll offer your job as a counterexample. Or, if yours isn’t much to brag about, you’ll come up with hypothetical scenarios that show that work isn’t always boring. Spectacular as they may be, mental gymnastics of this sort prove nothing of consequence. I rule out the possibility of some exotic work that’s meaningful, enjoyable, stimulating, and not boring for a simple reason: It doesn’t exist.

Work—all of it—is boring.

Work is enforced labor, required by our needs and demanded by others. To work …