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ZDNET's key takeaways
Tech companies promote AI as a means of eliminating "busywork."
Moderate amounts of boredom, however, can be fruitful.
Also, humans can't be expected to be constantly productive.
One of the most pervasive marketing tropes pushed by AI companies in recent years has been a promise to eliminate "busywork." Once we've been liberated from the burden of mundane tasks, we'll be free to think big thoughts, pursue our most cherished goals, and build deeper human connections. That sales pitch implies that within every human being there's a wellspring of creativity, and that stretches of boredom and monotony at work are a dam that blocks us from tapping into it. Monotony gets stigmatized as the enemy of insight.
But as is almost always the case with new technologies, reality is proving to be more nuanced than AI companies' marketing departments would have us believe. It turns out that occasional boredom might not be such a bad thing, and that asking employees to constantly focus on cognitively engaging tasks could, in the long run, be counterproductive.
Inspiration needs breathing room
Most of us at one point or another have experienced a "lightbulb" moment: a flash of illumination, when the pieces of a mental puzzle we've long been trying to solve suddenly fall into place. It's often precisely when we take a break from trying to solve a problem that the solution reveals itself.
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