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

I'm Angela Duckworth. I'm Stephen Dubner. And you're listening to No Stupid Questions.

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

You're just supposed to lie there on your mat with your own thoughts.

I fell sleep many times.

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

They say, your kid said this to me.

It was such a thoughtful, considerate thing to say. And I'm like, my kid said that.

Who? What? Angela, let me ask you this. How comfortable are you being alone with your thoughts for an extended period of time?

I guess it depends on how extended you mean, but I can go for hours at least.

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

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

If you ask me, when's the last time I sat in a room by

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

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

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

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

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

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

great psychologist, got really interested in Reverie, which is this state of daydreaming or

musing, but it's pleasant, right? So I think that's one of the key things about reverie

that you want to be alone with your thoughts.

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