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I found some answers online, but I don't really understand the nuance.

People seem to say that つまらない is "boring" in the sense that it is
uninteresting to you. And 退屈 is "boring" in the sense that you don't have
anything else to do. As such, it can often be translated as "bored" or a する
verb to "feel bored"

But several examples I see seem to go against that. 退屈な人 isn't uncommon, and
seems to often refer to a boring person, not a bored person. And things like
退屈な講義 and 退屈な話 also don't seem to fit.

So what is the actual distinction here?
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2022-12-19T13:26:30.170
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question
word-choice nuances
Difference between 退屈 and つまらない
As for the meaning,
[つまらない](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/en/%E3%81%A4%E3%81%BE%E3%82%89%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84/#je-50380)
can mean something different from _boring_ : _trivial_ , _nonsensical_ etc. In
the sense of _boring_ , it is mostly interchangeable with 退屈な.

For boring/bored, you'd ultimately need to depend on the context and it should
be easier. Roughly つまらない・退屈だ/な are _boring_ in most cases and 退屈する means _to
feel bored_. The latter is after all (in Japanese) a verb in active voice, so
there is an agent.

やることがなくて退屈だ/つまらない can be translated as _I have nothing to do and feel bored_ ,
but it can also be understood (more literally) as _I have nothing to do and
**things are boring**_.

退屈な人 is always _boring person_ and "person who is bored" is 退屈した人. This is
parallel to _tiring/tired person_ = 疲れる人/疲れた人. Note -た connotes with
perfective _-d_.

This kind of difficulty should arise from mismatch of transitivity between
Japanese and English, and should be partially handled on case-by-case basis.
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