9. Why Is It So Hard to Be Alone With Our Thoughts?
No Stupid Questions
Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
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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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