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No Stupid Questions

9. Why Is It So Hard to Be Alone With Our Thoughts?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.63.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Also: how do you avoid screwing up your kids?

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thor, you've got 20 sharpen sticks leaning against the wall. Why do you need another one?

0:06.8

I'm Antelod Duckworth. I'm Stephen Dobner. And you're listening to no stupid questions.

0:12.3

Today on the show, how often do you sit with your thoughts without any other form of stimulation?

0:18.4

You're just supposed to lie there on your mat with your own thoughts. I fell asleep many times.

0:24.2

Also, how much influence do parents have over their children once they've hit adolescence?

0:31.4

They say, your kid said this to me. It was such a thoughtful, considerate thing to say.

0:36.4

And I'm like, my kid said that.

0:38.4

Who? What?

0:43.3

Antelod, let me ask you this. How comfortable are you being alone with your thoughts for an extended

0:49.1

period of time? I guess it depends on how extended you mean. But I can go for hours at least.

0:57.2

Not reading, not on your phone, not talking to anyone, just with your thoughts.

1:01.0

Just with my thoughts. Yeah, I would say hours. And by the way, I might be vastly overestimating.

1:05.3

If you asked me when's the last time I sat in a room by myself?

1:09.2

When's the last time you sat in a room by yourself with your own thoughts for many hours?

1:13.2

I would say that the time that this happens to me most often is when I am going to get out of bed

1:20.2

in the morning and I find myself lying there thinking. And I think for that sort of activity,

1:29.3

it's probably more like 20 minutes. Okay, not three hours, but still something substantial.

1:36.0

And on the spectrum then of people around the world, do you think that puts you at a deep extreme?

1:42.9

I don't even have to say I think because there's research on this Tim Wilson great psychologist

1:48.5

got really interested in reverie, which is this state of daydreaming or musing, but it's pleasant.

1:56.4

Right? So I think that's one of the key things about reverie that you want to be alone with your

2:01.7

thoughts. And so he designed this experiment where undergraduates are in a room. There's like

...

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