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Lessons - The Power Of "Boring" (Scott) · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  back in your pocket. Visit Vanta.com slash Scott now before this offer expires that's V-A-N-T-A.com
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  slash Scott for a thousand dollars off. In this lessons episode we're going to talk about why
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  solitude might be your most powerful productivity tool. You're going to see how the top performers
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  that we look up to they're not superhuman they have just mastered the art of strategic boredom
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  and deep focus. You'll understand why your brain needs periods of quiet to process information
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  and how to reclaim your creative entrepreneurial business potential in a world that is filled with
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  distraction. The ability to be alone with your thoughts isn't just a productivity hack it's the
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  path to breakthrough thinking that sets you apart from a culture that is addicted to constant
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  stimulation. Today I want to talk about the power of boring and why your greatest productivity
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  it hides in solitude. Most people, myself included, they're afraid of being alone with their own
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  thoughts and we fill every single moment with noise or distraction or cheap dopamine I mean
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  social media Netflix hanging out with friends mindless scrolling and nothing wrong with any of these
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  things but we do them to avoid the discomfort of our own company but everybody who's listening to
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  this is focused on productivity at least I think you are you're trying to build you're trying to
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  sort of push your own boundaries and the truth is that the most productive time that you're ever
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  going to have is the time that looks the most quote unquote boring to others hours of solitude long
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  walks where you work out and work through these complex problems in your head um the mornings
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  that you spend in deep focus while the rest of the world is sleeping or even nights when the
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  rest of the world is sleeping at 2 3 a.m. if you're a night out these moments are your hidden
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  advantage in a world that really can't tolerate silence or stillness it is always seeking
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  cheap dopamine and input and noise we are all addicted to stimulation if you look around you
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  every single person checks their phone 96 times a day that's once every 10 minutes they bounce
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  between meetings and calls and work and they mistake busyness for productivity and motion for progress
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  and at the end of the day what do we have to show for it we have a bunch of half finished tasks we have
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  a mind that is scattered in a thousand directions and we have this nagging feeling that despite
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  all of our activity we haven't really moved the needle on anything that truly matters so the brutal
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  truth that you have to come the terms with is that constant stimulation is making you stupid
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  it's making you less effective and if you do want to achieve anything great you have to find
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  space for boredom your brain needs periods of quiet and boredom to process information make some
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  unexpected connections solve deep problems generate original ideas this is what your brain needs but
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  most people they can't even tolerate five minutes without reaching for their phone I'm I'm guilty
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  of this too but I've purposefully crafted times of boredom into my day for information processing
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  these unexpected connections between all these different ideas I have to try and solve the
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  deepest problems in my life and my work to generate original ideas this concept has radically
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  improved my productivity and my quality of life and I found it most people in 2025 they have
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  conditioned their minds to crave this next hit of novelty and in the best case scenario they're
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  paying for it with their creative potential in the worst case scenario they are paying for it by
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  giving up a life that they could be living or goals or objectives that they could be achieving
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  so the question that I have everyone asks themselves is are you willing to be different are you
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  willing to create space to reinforce how important it is to create space for yourself let's go back
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  in history some of history's greatest thinkers they understood the power of solitude so Einstein
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  he took long walks alone to solve physics problems Newton discovered gravity during a period of
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  isolated study when universities were closed due to a plague Maya Angelou rented hotel rooms where
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  she would write and solitude for hours this isn't coincidence it's causation deep work requires deep
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  focus and deep focus requires isolation from distraction when you create space for yourself to think
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  deeply you're not being anti social and you're not being unproductive you're giving yourself the
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  most valuable gift possible uninterrupted thought and this is where breakthroughs happen this is where
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  you form these connections that other people miss and where you develop the clarity to see opportunities
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  that are truly invisible to chronically distracted people and in a world that's optimized for shallow
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  work and instant gratification I'm telling you your ability to go deep is your superpower so
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  why does boredom make you better if you remember as a kid boredom sucked and not the pleasant boredom
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  of like a lazy summer day the excruciating I have nothing to do boredom that drove your parents crazy
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  that boredom actually wasn't useless it was a catalyst for creativity because when there's nothing
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  to entertain you your mind is forced to entertain itself so it starts making connections generating
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  ideas solving problems it craves stimulation so it creates it and boredom is a space where creativity is
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  born and today's world has engineered boredom out of existence there's always something to watch read
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  listen to always someone to talk to but I really have to ask yourself at what cost studies show the
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  children who experience boredom develop better problem solving skills and greater creativity adults
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  who experience and embrace boredom report higher levels of creativity and productivity and the most
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  successful people that I know like entrepreneurs that I know in my life they deliberately create
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  boredom blocks they don't call that but you get it in their schedules it's time when they do
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  nothing but think reflect and they just let their minds wander they understand that truly deep
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  life changing ideas and insights they don't come from consuming more information they come from
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  giving your mind space to process what you already know let me tell you another story let's talk
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  about the walk the changed apple this is a story of Steve Jobs so in 2011 Steve Jobs working on
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  what at the time would become one of Apple's most revolutionary products Siri but he wasn't working
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  on it in a lab or he wasn't in a meeting he wasn't even working on it at his desk he was walking
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  and jobs was famous for his walking meetings he believed that walking sparked creativity and allowed
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  for deeper conversations than sitting in a conference room and one particular walk with his
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  biographer Walter Isaacson reveals his thinking so to quote jobs if you just sit and act then
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  you're going to die taking a walk gives you time to think about a problem differently now during
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  the seemingly quote unquote boring walks jobs made some of his most important decisions and had his
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  most creative insights and this was not unique to jobs Mark Zuckerberg Jack Dorsey and Charles Darwin
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  all incorporated long walks into their daily routines they understood that movement combined
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  with solitude creates the perfect conditions for breakthrough thinking so if next time you're stuck
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  on a problem don't call for another meeting take a walk alone a huge shout out to bank on yourself
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  yourself dot com slash Scott instead another story Bill Gates he had a strange habit twice a year
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  he disappeared for a think week seven days of complete solitude in a secluded cabin no phone
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  no internet no family no friends just books no books in time to think now during these periods
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  have intense solitude Gates read reflected he mapped out the future of Microsoft in his foundation
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  and many of Microsoft's pivotal strategic shifts they originated during these boring quote-unquote
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  boring weeks in the woods Gates isn't alone in doing this so Jack Dorsey founder of twitter does
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  10-day silent meditation retreats radalio attributes a lot of his success to his meditation practices
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  aval ravicont starts each day with an hour of solitude these aren't coincidences these are strategic
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  choices by some of the world's most successful powerful brilliant people and they know what most
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  don't innovation happens in isolation not in collaboration see teams are great for execution but
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  breakthrough ideas and insights they almost always come from individual thought if you want to
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  think thoughts no one has thought before you need to create conditions that no one else is creating
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  and that usually means embracing solitude in a world that is addicted to connection so how do you
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  create your own boring advantage you don't need a cabin in the woods or a week away from civilization
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  to harness the power of boring productivity so here's how you start step one schedule deep work blocks
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  now deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task block
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  out two to three hours in your calendar for uninterrupted focus means turn off notifications close
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  your door you have to tell people you're unavailable and then you want to work on your most important
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  project with complete focus now the first few times it's going to be uncomfortable your mind's
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  going to crave distraction you're going to want to pick up your phone I want you to push through it
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  like any muscle your focus gets stronger with use two hours of true deep work will produce more
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  value than eight hours of distracted shallow work step two take daily thinking walks this is
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  a simplest productivity hack it's also one of the most powerful a daily walk with no phone no
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  podcasts no music just you and your thoughts and you can start with 20 minutes just let your mind
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  wander notice what emerges in your brain when you're not filling your brain with input and you
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  can ask yourself some open-ended questions as you walk what am I missing in my current strategy
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  what would make the biggest difference in my business right now what would this look like if it
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  were easy walking physically changes your brain chemistry in ways that enhance creative thinking
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  and the combination of some light physical activity and distraction free thinking creates the
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  perfect conditions for insight step three I want you to implement strategic boredom so once a
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  week schedule an hour of pure boredom sit in a chair no phone no book no music no journaling
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  just you and your thoughts and the first 20 minutes will be excruciating your mind's going to
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  beg for stimulation but give it nothing and after about 30 minutes something magical happens your
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  brain starved for input starts generating its own ideas emerge connections form problems that
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  seemed unsolvable suddenly have obvious solutions this is your mind doing what it was built to do
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  before we started bombarding it with constant stimulation because boredom isn't the absence of
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  thought it's the beginning of deeper thought that's a powerful reframe I'm gonna say that one
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  more time boredom isn't the absence of thought it's the beginning of deeper thought and then step
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  four create information boundaries so most people are drowning in information while starving for
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  wisdom they consume endless content without giving themselves time to process it so I want you to
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  try this instead once a week so one day per week I want you to operate with no new information input
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  so that means that no social media no news no podcast no videos maybe the weekends a little bit
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  easier because you're not in front of your computer and I want you to sit down just for an hour
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  and process what you've learned over the past week so just journal write it down review some notes
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  about what you've already learned and then ask yourself what does this information that I've learned
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  over the past week mean for me and my work because I know that you already know enough to be wildly
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  successful the problem is not lack of information it's lack of implementation and when you create
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  boundaries around information consumption you force yourself to metabolize we've already learned
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  rather than constantly seeking the next idea and the next insight now let's be honest these four
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  ideas are not going to be easy there's nothing sexy about sitting alone with your thoughts I mean when
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  someone asked who you did yesterday what are you gonna say I took a two hour walk and thought about
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  my business strategy it doesn't sound as impressive as I had meetings with three potential clients and
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  launched in the marketing campaign but the results speak louder than activity the most successful
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  people have the courage to be boring they're willing to do the unsexy work of thinking deep
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  planning carefully and executing with focus and they're comfortable saying no to distractions
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  that other people have a really hard time resisting and while everyone else is trying to look
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  busy and important the most successful people are creating space for the thought and focus that
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  actually moves the needle so don't mistake quietness for an action the still waters truly
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  run deep and the hard truth about your productivity is that you will never reach your true potential
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  your full potential if you cannot tolerate being alone with your thoughts the ability to think
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  deeply for extended periods is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly valuable and as the
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  world gets noisier the advantages of silence grow stronger in the most valuable work that you're
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  ever going to do won't happen in meetings or in these collaborative documents or in these
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  crowded co-working spaces it will happen in the moments of isolation that would bore most people
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  to tears because your competitive advantage lives in the space between stimuli in the quiet moments
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  when other people reach for their phones you're going to reach for deeper thoughts in the morning
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  hours when others are still sleeping you're going to be solving problems and in the walks that other
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  people fill with podcasts you're generating ideas this is how you win not by working more hours
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  not by being perpetually busy not by constant collaboration but by embracing the boring
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  silent spaces where true productivity lies so the only question you have to ask yourself
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  is it are you comfortable enough with yourself to find out what's waiting for you in the silence