[jd007]

Regardless of other reasons for this observation, I think sampling bias, or the inspection paradox probably contributes to it.

Assuming that you are:

- equally likely to have the desire to learn/create something new during any given time period

- busy for the majority of your time (e.g. you are employed in a time-consuming job)

Then you are more likely to find that you want to learn something new while you are busy (since whenever you randomly find something you want to learn, you are more likely to be busy than not).

If you swap the second assumption to "idle for the majority of your time (e.g. you are unemployed, or employed at a more relaxing job)", then you are probably more likely to make the opposite observation.