[icebraining]

The needless aggressiveness aside, this goes completely against my job experience. The boring workplaces were those in which putting in the effort was actively discouraged and punished. Consider yourself lucky if you never worked in one of these places.

[rurp]

This matches my experience as well. I've worked at places that were boring because everyone was checked out and didn't care about the work. I've also worked at more interesting jobs where the people were far more engaged. The latter type of job tends to be more challenging, better paying, and more conducive to learning.

It's possible that OP's problem is largely that he has worked for bad companies/managers.