100 Days of Play – Blog

For generations people have asked when the propensity for technology to reduce the effort required to deliver the basics of food, water, shelter will be met with a reduction in the length of the working week. We have not yet achieved a three-day week. In certain categories of jobs people are working longer than ever. But the fact is that on the whole we are working significantly less than has historically been the case. Weekends spent outside work are now the norm, where once two full days off was the exception.

Today I read the article ‘Work Isn’t the Opposite of Play’ by Ben Ross, and though I agreed with the premise, reasoning, and conclusion, I did take exception to the sentence “Further, I’d argue that to be really good at work you have to play at it.” My inference from this, rightly or wrongly, was of an embedded assumption for the necessity of work and the need to be “really good” at working through the utilisation of play. I was left with the question, has this blog post become effective propaganda for a prevailing paradigm of oppression? You may well consider that a quick escalation given Ben’s convivial writing; still, let me see if I can make my case in point by way of this invitation from The Flying Raccoon.

One of the fun things about working in Play is that you get to tell people ‘I work in Play’. Reactions vary wildly. It’s good to see, though, that many believe that the ‘defence of play’ has already been won. When I say to these people ‘Play Isn’t the Opposite of Work’, they’ll say ‘Of course not. Does anyone still believe it is?’

There were a few days during my challenge where I felt like I’d had enough. Various people had suggested to me that play can’t be scheduled and that it has to be spontaneous. I didn’t think that’s so, and I still don’t: it’s clear to me that we can deliberately make time for play if we want to.