Boredom has, paradoxically, become quite interesting to academics lately. In early May, London’s Boring Conference celebrated seven years of delighting in dullness. At this event, people flocked to talks about weather, traffic jams, and vending-machine sounds, among other sleep-inducing topics.

        What, exactly, is everybody studying? One widely accepted psychological definition of boredom is “the distasteful experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity.” But how can you quantify a person’s boredom level and compare it with someone else’s? In 1986, psychologists introduced the Boredom Proneness Scale, designed to measure an individual’s overall tendency to feel bored. By contrast, the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale, developed in 2008, measures a person’s feelings of boredom in a given situation.

        Boredom has been linked to behavior issues including inattentive driving, mindless snacking, excessive drinking, and addictive gambling. In fact, many of us would choose pain over boredom. One team of psychologists discovered that two-thirds of men and a quarter of women would rather self-administer electric shocks than sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Researching this phenomenon, another team asked volunteers to watch boring, sad, or neutral films, during which they could self-administer electric shocks. The bored volunteers shocked themselves more and harder than the sad or neutral ones did.

        But boredom isn’t all bad. By encouraging self-reflection and daydreaming, it can spur creativity. An early study gave participants abundant time to complete problem-solving and word-association exercises. Once all the obvious answers were exhausted, participants gave more and more inventive answers to combat boredom. A British study took these findings one step further, asking subjects to complete a creative challenge (coming up with a list of alternative uses for a household item). One group of subjects did a boring activity first, while the others went straight to the creative task. Those whose boredom pumps had been primed were more productive.

        In our always-connected world, boredom may be a hard-to-define state, but it is a fertile one. Watch paint dry or water boil, or at least put away your smartphone for a while, and you might unlock your next big idea.

解析：D。原文最后一段提到，无聊也许是一种难以定义的状态，但却可以产生好的结果（but it is a fertile one）。随后提出建议：可以让自己处于无聊的状态，说不定这会解锁下一个大创意。由此可知，作者建议人们让自己无所事事一段时间，D项与此内容相符，故为正确答案。 

错项排除：A项利用原文中出现的big idea设置干扰，但原文中说的是人们在无所事事一段时间之后，可能会解锁下一个大创意，A项中的Stop idling与原文中的建议相悖，故排除。原文中建议人们把智能手机放在一边（put away your smartphone），而B项的Unlock one’s smartphone（打开智能手机）与原文意思相反，故排除。原文中建议人们无所事事一段时间，做一些无聊的事情，而不是去寻求刺激，C项与原文内容相悖，故排除。