
Feynman On The Importance Of Playing - tebeka
http://pythonwise.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-importance-of-playing.html
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microarchitect
I'm a grad student and I regularly run across this quote of Feynman. What
strikes me about the quote is that unlike Feynman, I can't always just drop
whatever project I'm currently working on and start doing "cool new stuff". I
have responsibilities and commitments to my adviser and my colleagues. Even if
I'm at a point in my research where starting something new is possible,
sources of funding, adviser's expertise and interests etc. still constrain
what I can possibly work on.

I guess you can do whatever catches your fancy if you're Richard Feynman. For
the rest of us mortals, the challenge is in finding interesting stuff to do
within the constraints of the environment we're working in.

The lesson that I take from the quote is that you've got keep yourself
interested in whatever you're doing. If getting up in the morning and turning
up to the lab seems like a chore, then something needs to change until it
isn't.

~~~
dorkitude
While I sympathize with your specific situation, I can't help but suspect
that, in the general case, there's something of a selection bias when it comes
to playfulness and autonomy. What I mean is, people who are dedicated to
maintaining their playfulness will tend to opt out of systems that don't allow
it.

Anecdotally speaking, a lot of the creative and playful people I know seem to
spend their careers moving, incrementally of course, from less autonomy to
more autonomy. I see these moves happen when people leave a job, accept a new
job, start a business, switch majors, transfer universities, or apply to
specific grad program.

My point is that it could have been something essential to Feynman's character
that led him toward the amount of autonomy he's famous for having had.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
He was a professor. With tenure. Lots of those around.

~~~
Troll_Whisperer
A sentence. Requires. A verb.

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sp332
A TED talk from a woman (Paula Scher) who knows how to be "serious" without
being "solemn" and losing your sense of play:
[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paula_scher_gets_serious....](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paula_scher_gets_serious.html)

~~~
cfn
Thanks for the link, it is a fantastic talk and her work is very good.

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EdwardCoffin
There's a good anecdote about Feynman and his sense of play in Danny Hillis's
keynote for the 2000 Game Developer's Conference (video at
[http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014862/2000-GDC-Keynote-Dr-
Dan...](http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014862/2000-GDC-Keynote-Dr-Daniel)). At
10:50 he talks about asking a physics question with respect to why dry
spaghetti shatters a certain way, and what that led to.

There are also some other good stories in that talk, one about Marvin Minsky
which immediately follows the Feynman story. The whole thing is worth
listening to, I think.

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hrabago
This is what I like about coding. I enjoy trying to solve those small puzzles
that make up a full application. The problem sometimes is that the application
gets so big and the solutions take too long that it becomes a grind.

I find that when I reach that point, it helps to take a break, look at the
problem with a fresh mind, and try to break down the solution into smaller
pieces. At that level, some parts become interesting and fun again, even
though others might not be. At least you have fun in some of the parts,
instead of feeling the grind of the entire thing.

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kongqiu
Play is so important, but since it's difficult to measure the value, it gets
down-played as "non-productive." While it's obvious when someone is "over-
playing," it's just as important to identify when you're "under-playing"...

Some of my biggest breakthroughs on work-related projects have come to me as
I've been hiking, taking in a museum with my wife, or pushing my daughter on a
swingset.

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georgeott
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity>

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altrego99
You can't like to do something unless you can play with it without worrying
about the consequences. This is the exact reason why I didn't want to do
PhD... and I am glad I still like Physics, Statistics, and Mathematics -
because I play with them whenever I want to.

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suivix
Principal Skinner: Here's a whole box of unsealed envelopes for the PTA!

Bart: You're making me lick envelopes?

P.S.: Oh, licking envelopes can be fun! All you have to do is make a game of
it.

Bart: What kind of game?

P.S.: Well, for example, you could see how many you could lick in an hour,
then try to break that record.

Bart: Sounds like a pretty crappy game to me.

P.S.: Yes, well... Get started.

~~~
antimora
Sound a lot like something was done at my work. Metrics, just as number of
tickets closed, were given. More we do the better :-)

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Mongoose
Upvote if you spent at least a couple seconds trying to unhighlight the
Feynman text.

