☀️ The case for playing more
When was the last time you rolled down a hill, just because? When did spending three hours doing something with no outcome start to feel irresponsible? And when did a spontaneous plan from a friend become something you needed to check your calendar for first?
It doesn't happen all at once, which is maybe why it's so easy to miss. Adulthood arrives in layers, each one quietly adding to the idea that seriousness is the point, that efficiency is the goal, and that time spent without a clear return on it is time wasted. And somewhere in all of that, play, which turns out to be one of the most fundamental things we do as human beings, gets left behind.
What's curious is how much we lose with it, not just the fun of it, but the creativity, the depth of connection, the ability to adapt, the sense that life has some lightness to it. Researchers who study play in adults keep arriving at the same finding from different directions: the people who make room for it tend to be more creative, more resilient, and better at the kinds of relationships that sustain them over time.
This edition is a look at what happens when we take play seriously, finally, and what it might mean to bring it back.
📖 3 Articles to Spark Your Curiosity
The Delights of Mischief
Philosopher Alex Moran makes the case that mischievous people, the ones who retain a playful, light-hearted temperament well into adulthood, actually possess a distinctive kind of virtue.
→ Read on Aeon
What Adults Forget About Friendship
The deepest childhood friendships were built on unstructured time, shared imagination, and the freedom to be genuinely silly together. This piece explores what we trade away as adults, and why bringing some of that playful inefficiency back might be exactly what our relationships need.
→ Read on The Atlantic
When Did Adults Stop Playing?
Shannon Watts reflects on how play, imaginative, self-directed, and gloriously without a fixed outcome, gradually disappears from adult life, and what it might look like to find our way back to it.
→ Read on Substack
🗞️ 3 Headlines Worth Exploring
Why Play Brings Us Pleasure
New research suggests that when we play, we deliberately create uncertainty to experience the pleasure of resolving it, and that this process is exactly what keeps our aging brains healthy and our thinking original. A fascinating look at the neuroscience of why fun is far more serious than it sounds.
→ Read on Big Think
Can Adults Learn to Be Playful Again?
A review of Playful by toy designer and educator Cas Holman, who argues that reclaiming play as an adult comes down to three things: embracing possibility, releasing judgment, and reframing what success actually means.
→ Read on Greater Good Magazine
How to Stop Taking Things Personally
Over-seriousness and the tendency to personalise everything are two sides of the same coin. A psychologist explains how shifting from hubristic pride to authentic pride, taking pride in your efforts rather than your image, makes you less rigid and more open to the world.
→ Read on BBC Science Focus
☀️ 3 Actions to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Do something with no outcome
Pick one hour this week and spend it on something purely for the enjoyment of it, with no goal and no result. Draw something badly, walk somewhere unfamiliar, play a game you haven't thought about in years.
Do something spontaneous with a friend
Reach out to someone you enjoy and suggest something loose and unscheduled, a walk with no destination, an afternoon with no agenda. Resist the urge to give it a clear purpose or a defined end time.
Notice where you're self-monitoring
The next time you feel the urge to hold back, whether it's the silly comment you don't make or the idea you don't share, pause and ask yourself what you're actually protecting.
⚡ 6 Quick Sparks
🧠 To keep in mind: The Hidden Cost of Taking Yourself Too Seriously
Play isn't frivolous, and the self-consciousness that stops us from engaging in it might be costing us more than we think.
→ Read on Big Think
📖 To read: 20 Ways to Play as an Adult (Just Because)
A personal, practical list of ways to bring more play into everyday life.
→ Read on Substack
📊 To check: Where People Trust Each Other Most and Least in the World
This chart maps social trust across 25 countries.
→ Read on Visual Capitalist
🎥 To watch: What Adults Can Learn from Kids
Child prodigy Adora Svitak argues that the world needs childish thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity, and above all, optimism.
→ Watch on YouTube
💡 To know: Why Innovation Can't Happen Without Playfulness
Five insights from Piera Gelardi, author of The Playful Way, on why workplaces that strip away play also strip away the very conditions that make creativity possible.
→ Read on InnoLead
💼 To prioritize: How a Playful Mindset Can Boost Creativity on Your Team
Out of 15,000 people asked where they get their best ideas, not even one said at work.
→ Read on Harvard Business Review
🎲 This week’s wonderfully random corner of the internet
🎮 The Evolution of Trust
An interactive guide to game theory that can help explain our worldwide epidemic of distrust. As the creator says, the game addresses the following dilemma: “Why, even in peacetime, do friends become enemies? And why, even in wartime, do enemies become friends?”
→ Play on ncase.me/trust
📝 Word of the Week
Ludic (Latin: ludus, meaning "play" or "game") - relating to or characterized by play, playfulness, or spontaneous creative activity.
It's a word that gives play a formal name, which somehow makes it easier to take seriously. We talk about being productive, being intentional, being mindful, but we rarely talk about being ludic, about approaching life with the lightness and curiosity that play requires. And yet, the ludic impulse, the one we had as children without even thinking about it, might be one of the most important things we can choose to hold onto as adults.
🧘♀️ Question of the Week for Introspection
When did being playful start to feel like something you had to earn, and what would it look like to just give yourself permission?
See you next Sunday! Until then, keep your eyes open, your questions big, and your sense of wonder alive.
Your curious internet friend,
Ruxandra
