A friend once asked me how I could read so much. I replied that I have always loved reading since I was a little kid. That, and, I read quickly because I skip the boring parts. When a book dives into all kinds of mundane detail or when it regurgitates the same overused “toddler marshmallow experiment” as an example for why delayed gratification is the key to happiness in life, I either stop reading or skip that section entirely.
I do the same thing when watching TV, Movies, Sports and internet browsing. They all have a lot of uninteresting, inconsequential fluff. I don’t need to watch one more gratuitous sex scene, gruesome autopsy photo or depiction of someone’s crazy thoughts when all I’m seeking is decent entertainment.
As for websites – well, we’re all familiar with sites that begin by telling the history of agrarian society when all we want to know is the temperature to roast a chicken.
What’s paradoxical is that the activities I really enjoy might appear to be repetitive and boring to most people. I swim laps – counting stroke after stroke and lap after lap. I workout every day, doing the same exercises, reps and movements so regularly that my workout times rarely vary more than 2 minutes. I do yoga – where my focus is on breathing, holding positions and staring into space.
I walk my dogs on the same routes every day, observing the same houses, landscapes, flora and fauna as it changes minutely across the seasons.
I drum – practicing the same rudiments, techniques and beats over and over. I paint and draw – focusing for months at a time on landscapes, sketching, street scenes or animals.
So it appears that in real life, I embrace the boring parts. But when I’m watching or reading a facsimile of real life I skip them.
I wonder how many other people are like me?