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Monday, July 26, 2004

Turn Work Into Play

by Asim Jalis

Here are more ideas on turning work into play. This is fun. 1. When writing checks try to write as beautifully as possible. Practice hand-writing in different fonts. E.g. hand-write the check in Gothic. Or create a baroque font with excessive adornment. Write with flair. 2. I remember now that I really like writing with flair. E.g. I wasted a lot of time making my math homework beautiful. I would draw the Greek symbols boldly and with flamboyance. 3. I just wrote out a card for someone and instead of writing plainly I wrote with flair. And even though it was a lot more "work" than writing plainly, it was *fun*. 4. Why do they do it then? The answer is the same as the one Neo gave to Agent Smith in the last Matrix. Why do you fight me? Smith asked. Neo replied: Because I choose to. It's an exercise of freedom. Neo fights Smith because he can, because he has the freedom to, because he can make that choice. 5. Play is precisely that choice. That freedom to do as you want. The freedome to do something because you can, because you are free to do it. 6. The thing with doing things playfully is that it is inefficient. And that is precisely the point. 7. There are two opposing forces in nature: efficiency and playfulness. Playfulness is always inefficient. 8. In an experiment reported by Leighton, rats deliberately take the longer route if it is more mentally stimulating instead of the shortest route to a food pellet. Even rates don't care much for efficiency.