>>smartphones have apparently conditioned us to consider boredom absolutely intolerable. I'm note sure that's a good thing.

>humans have disliked boredom since forever.

Maybe I'm unusual, but if I go too many days without spending a significant fraction of my time doing things I dislike, then my mental health starts to decline. Specifically, I start to lack motivation and drive with the result that I spend less time pursuing and more time procrastinating (or resting when I don't need rest).

(Doing something risky works just as well as doing something painful or uncomfortable in keeping me out of this particular bad mental place. It doesn't have to be a risk of something terrible happening: it only needs to feel not totally safe in some juicy way, not to be objectively dangerous.)

Also, I wish I knew what I just wrote when I was still a young man.