Playing Around

Stop playing around!

This advice is doled out by parents around the world, and it’s a good thing, too: otherwise, not many kids would go on to have independent, successful lives. After all, there is a certain structured life we expect for kids to adhere to, and this starts mighty early in life.

By the time we’re in elementary school, we’re used to not being able to play around for fairly long stretches of time. We’re expected to stay (mostly) focused on a single subject for as long as 45 minutes or an hour, with plenty of caveats and praise for creative and clever teachers everywhere out there. We learn to postpone our playtime for longer and longer as our education goes along.

When you’re a grownup at work, you’re not supposed to play around, but who among us doesn’t find a way to sneak little games in every now and then? Maybe it’s a little video game, or maybe it’s scrolling through a social media feed. Wait… are you supposed to be working right now? I mean, nothing.

We have this id…