How to not be boring.

A non-exhaustive list of things that bore me and interesting alternatives.

Let me start off by saying that there is a difference between being bored and being boring. It’s good to be bored. It forces your mind to dig a little deeper to find insights and interestingness within yourself. Self examine and what not.

Being boring on the other hand… kind of sucks. Why would you be boring? I don’t think anyone is boring at their core. Boringness comes from insecurity. Caring too much what others might think of you. Focusing on this perceived perception of you. Any ways, my point is, you don’t want to be boring so I am going to help you not be.

Here is a list of things that make people boring that you should avoid. And since I try to keep from writing wholly negative posts here, I am also going to include interesting alternatives you can try after each one.

Boring: Flight flexes

Don’t post a pic from your flight or a pic of your ticket. Your traveling is for your enjoyment, it’s just greedy to try and increase it by some cheap thrill of making other people jealous or something. This holds double for posting from first class, business class or a PJ. That luxury should be enough for you to enjoy. Don’t cheapen it. And I promise you, whatever feeling you think people are having when they see it is wrong. It’s an eye roll from me dog.

Interesting: mirror selfies

That’s the main reason I follow anyone I know on social media. I wanna know what they look like these days. Mirror selfies shows me how you’re holding up and how you dress. Sometimes I get some outfit ideas from it. Also shows confidence. Always enjoy them. Basic but not boring. So if you wanna show the world something about yourself, show them you not your lay down seat.

Boring: Your dreams.

This is pretty common knowledge. Your dreams are just for you. They are some other dimension or higher being communicating to you and only you in a strange code that you can’t understand. But part of the way they encode that message is by making it painfully boring to hear about for anyone else. Almost like they wrote the message in invisible ink. But rather than turn from legible writing to blank paper when exposed to light, it turns from interesting bizarre adventure into boring nothingness when shared.

Interesting: predictions and prophecy

Everyone loves a soothsayer or oracle. Very cool to predict the future. History Channel used to be all about Nostradamus, not so much these days, idk why. But we should bring back more Nostradamus energy. So if you want to talk about something mystical, try telling some fortunes, but please keep your dreams between you and Yaweh.

Boring: Anything online.

Online has become somewhat the real world over the last decade. In the sense that things that happen on there matter and have real effect on people’s lives. But still it’s so boring to talk about in real life. I don’t mean like “hey I read an article about…” that’s fine. But like don’t describe a TikTok or a meme you saw. It’s never gunna come across. It’s always going to be less interesting than a story that involves you walking down the street and seeing something or talking to someone and learning something. Interaction with the physical is always more interesting than interaction with the digital.

Interesting: Gossiping

Looks obviously gossiping isn’t good per se. Kind of feels like it should be one of the seven sins. But, it’s definitely interesting. I think a workaround is to gossip about people to people that don’t know them. I love hearing gossip about people I don’t know. Not like celebrities, that’s boring, but like friends of friends cousins and stuff. Also that’s truly the test of how interesting it is. If the story is juicy without any really knowledge or background on the people then you know it’s good (interesting) gossip. If you don’t have any gossip, just start a rumor. And then when it comes back to you and everyone is mad at you just say you were “obviously joking,” it will be more interesting than referencing a meme, I promise.

Boring: Jet lag.

You went somewhere. The time there is different than the time where you call home. No one needs to hear about it. Oh you woke up at 4 am and were fully awake? Oh my god no way! At 3pm you felt like you were ready for bed? Tell me more!

In this same vein. Your flight delays are not interesting to anyone else. When someone reacts to you saying how you were stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours and then had to return to the gate, they are just being polite. You are basically telling a story where the plot is “I sat down for longer than I expected to sit down”

Interesting: cultural things you wanna bring back

America is a melting pot and a land of experimentation. Those are the reasons for our success. I think. So it’s always fun when someone comes back from a trip and talks about what little things we should adopt from the place they visited. Like one time I went to Dalian and they just treat farts like sneezes. Can rip them anywhere and no one bats an eye. Business meeting, fancy dinner. All fair game. Maybe something we could try here? If you come back from a trip, this is the kind of stuff you should come back with.

Boring: Other people’s money.

I can’t stress this one enough. It’s really boring to talk about how much money other people are making. Who cares? It doesn’t affect you. This also includes celebrity net worths. How much money George Clooney has is by far the least interesting thing about him. Money is literally just coupons we use to make trading more efficient. How many coupons people have is not interesting, but what they do with them sometimes is. For instance, I don’t care what Jeff Bezos’ net worth is, because thats boring. But no matter how you felt about it, you gotta admit its pretty interesting that he sent his girlfriend to outer space with her friends.

I will say the exception to this is when the money comes from something very random. Lottery winners are fun. A guy was installing a septic tank and found an ancient Roman statue worth millions of dollars? That’s interesting. But salaries and stock options grants as dinner conversation? Count me out.

Interesting: strange talents

Idk why we stopped this in middle school, maybe that’s when we stopped having talent shows. But I want to hear about who can flip their eyelids inside out or walk on their hands. Can you swallow swords or breakdance? Let’s see it! People have value outside of their buying power, and sometimes that value is being able to beatbox.