Be bored
Interest needs boredom first
“Dad, can I have the iPad? I want to watch cartoons.”
Joy is dopamine: you do something, you pull it off, you get the hit. A screen gives you the same hit for nothing. Switch it on and stare.
Parents hand a kid a screen so the kid will leave them alone. The kid ends up pouring all their attention into it. Industry leaders raise their kids without screens.
For interest to show up, you have to be bored, with nothing to do. Boredom is the engine of progress. It’s where “I want to make something” comes from.
You need time alone with yourself to invent who you are. Otherwise you’re like a dog: the phone screen lights up, you drool.
Be bored.