Fun and play

I have an annoying trait that I've come to appreciate.

The energy with which you demand I do something creates an equally inverse desire to not do it.

Thankfully I'm not the only one. But for some reason it seems to be built in a bit stronger in my personality than the average person. For years I struggled to get things done when they were tossed my way with little explanation or understanding.

I didn't know why. Now I kind of do.

Granted, it's not necessarily a trait I love.

It gets me into situations that end up with more headache than necessary.

I'm aware of it.

But there's a flip side to this detracting aspect of my character. It has an unintended positive side effect.

When I'm sitting down to work on something, and that something is of my choosing, and all the elements are setup in a way that matches how I think—time suddenly means nothing.

I can spend hours, days, weeks or months, working away at problem, all while enjoying every moment.

There is work I love to do that others find tedious. There's also work I can't stand that would take thirty seconds of effort on the part of a colleague.

Years ago this was annoying and caused me countless headaches, instilled imposter syndrome, and led me to try and fix myself and fit in where needed.

That's not necessarily bad.

We all live in a social world, and to some extent fitting in is required. But there is freedom in recognizing who we are, and being true to it.

So back to that annoying trait. If someone tells me I must get something done, defines how exactly that should happen, and makes it clear that feedback will be dismissed—well that's all the ingredients for a most dreadful day.

If instead I get to be party to the seed of an idea, give feedback along the way, and have autonomy in parts of the work—then there's the possibility of something magical happening.

It doesn't happen all the time. I wish I could replicate it a whim.

What happens? Fun. I have fun.

A task that I take on isn't some menial drivel, devoid of personality. Instead it becomes a challenge to surmount, an obstacle to overcome, a muddle of chaos demanding clarity. I have the opportunity to reverse entropy, to create art.

That's obviously a bit overselling things. Most days I'm signing screens for apps. I'm not designing new medicine or crafting science that will save lives.

But I am creating experiences that affect the time people spend.

And when I can get into the mode of play, of fun, of building castles in the sand, then time becomes an abstract concept.

I wish this on you. This isn't the same as being passionate about something. It's a subtler type of energy. This is finding something that you are good at, having the freedom to shape it within certain constraints, and having some mechanism to get feedback when you're done.

This type of product design, of creation, continues to make my work fun and push me forward to try new things.

I've been writing a lot in the last year about the new AI tools I've tested. That's not the point of this piece, but rather it's an outcome of me genuinely feeling like it's my job to be a lifelong learner. I get to tinker, create, learn, and have fun, while building things that help people in their lives in some way.

Some days I lose that spark, that joy, that feeling of work without work.

Instead of brute forcing things, making myself hack through and just tough it out, I've learned to pause and listen. I find time to think about the problem, why I'm blocked, and look for ways to turn it into something fun.

This idea isn't original at all to me, of course. I first remember reading about the concept in Effortless, by Greg McKeown.

I don't follow all the concepts in the book, but I do find ways to take a required thing and shift it into my own way of thinking about it. That doesn't mean I have complete freedom in my work to just do whatever I want. Rather to find a way to give myself ownership in completing the task, and finding delight along the way.

There's also a side effect of all this. When you're having fun it will show to others. They'll see the care and delight you put into it, and that will shine through.