Are We Too Old to Play?

“He’s like an adult 9-year-old.”

Over the last few months, my son has gotten super into watching all things MarkRober. He started watching his YouTube videos, and before I knew it, I was ordering these “Build Box” engineering kits for Christmas presents, spending a ridiculous amount of money on shipping from California to France.

Over the holidays, while we were watching way more TV than normal, I discovered that this Rober guy’s got a whole show on Netflix, with multiple seasons.
The first time I watched, it was the episode where he builds a super robot, which goes into battle with 4 other robots to see who will win. I felt like I was watching teenage boys.

I figured the guy must be in his early 30s, given his penchant for play, and how much he loved blowing stuff up. Turns out I was way off — he’s almost my age.

He’s a former NASA engineer, who turned his YouTube channel into a multi-million dollar company. If he hadn’t built said business, it would be hard to take him seriously with his backwards baseball hat and his penchant for play.

And that’s how his story connects with the book, Play by Dr. Stuart Brown.

Play has a very important purpose, but as adults many of us left it behind. We deem it as not serious, and as unprofessional. I remember one piece of feedback in an early book circle, where someone said that my work was “not suitable for an adult audience.”

Pioneering play research Brian Sutton Smith once said, “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”

We need play in our lives, and not just when we’re at home. We also need when we’re at work.

Here’s an experiment for you:

1. Grab a partner.
2. Make a list of most boring tasks that you “have to” accomplish for work.
3. Set a timer for 5 minutes.
4. Individually, come up with as many playful ways to transform those boring tasks.
5. The one who has the most creative approaches wins (and the other has to buy them a coffee.)

Do you see how I used the play personality of competition (yesterday’s post), to invite you to think about play in a new way?

You can add another layer as well. Before you set the timer, have one of you go for a short walk outside. Have the other person play "Wordle” or some other game on their phone. See what changes in terms of your list of creative approaches.

We don’t have to choose play or work. We can be more like Mark Rober, and make work more playful.

Originally posted on Substack with comments.

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