Play

Cameron insists that we approach creativity as a kind of play. Sneak off to do it, make it illicit. Han says that play is a ritual.

The magic circle of rules creates play. Ha Phan calls this a “core constraint” when she’s relating it to work.

Thinking has a dimension of play to it. “Thinking is more erotic than calculating… [It] has the character of play.” Han p. 83 You can’t force a good idea, you have to sneak up on it, create good conditions for it.

Kathy Sierra argues that “Dark knowledge” is knowledge that’s impossible to talk about or teach. We only know that some people have it in certain areas. It’s why some basketball players seem to have eyes in the back of their head. To develop your own, you need to allow your brain to do what it does best: Seek out novelty, based on whatever seems interesting, and make connections in the background.

References

Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way . Penguin USA, Inc., 2010.

You have to be your own protective parent. Establish security and boundaries; allow time and opportunity for play.

Han, Byung-Chul. 2020. The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present. Polity Press.

Play is a kind of ritual, in that it is intensive, unproductive, still.

Work is tied to production and measured in performance. True play, ritual, being, involves none of these.

Arango, Jorge. 2021. Hà Phan on Product Leadership . Episode 55. The Informed Life. February 14. https://theinformed.life/2021/02/14/episode-55-ha-phan/.

To build great products and great teams, you have to give everyone the opportunity to play and experiment, not just worry about implementation and feasibility. To make that play productive, frame it around some core constraint.