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From a leading expert, a groundbreaking book on the science of play, and its essential role in fueling our happiness and intelligence throughout our lives. We've all seen the happiness on the face of a child while playing in the schoolyard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless, all consuming, and fun. But as Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates, play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. We are designed by nature to flourish through play. Particularly in tough times, we need to play more than ever, as it's the very means by which we prepare for the unexpected, search out new solutions, and remain optimistic. A fascinating blend of cutting-edge neuroscience, biology, psychology, social science, and inspiring human stories of the transformative power of play, this book proves why play just might be the most important work we can ever do.… (more)
User reviews
He emphasizes the importance of play for
I emphasize that he does all of this in a "lite" way - not burdened by scientific jargon/drudgery. That's why the book is fun to read. Yet, he DOES weave, in the most reader-friendly way, what scientists are discovering, speculating on, and even proving.
The only disappointment that I have is that he doesn't have an appendix with references so that I could read more!
We all play as children, it's part of our make-up, but something happens as we age and many adults start to feel guilty for playing. What does remain is often overly organized rigid and competitive, just like work. Play is creative and innovative and allows us to discover different ways to interact with the world around us. It teaches us the value of mastering skills and, hopefully, how to win and lose. It's everything that lifts us from the mundane.
If you feel stifled or lack creativity, your play development may have been disrupted. Brown offers the idea of recreating your play history. Go back to the first joyful experience you can remember and follow the threads. What brought you joy as a child? How can you bring that back into your life? Next, expose yourself to play. Are you open to play now? How can you be more playful? Finally, be active, free yourself from fear and allow yourself to be a beginner.
In the work place, play can be seen as frivolous and wasted energy. However, progressive leaders are beginning to understand the inherent link between play and imagination. Creating cutting-edge products or solving problems both benefit from greater imagination. Play also creates an atmosphere of teamwork and camaraderie which improves the work dynamic and increases employee satisfaction and retention.
Overall, the book is an interesting read for leaders and coaches that want to bring more creativity and imagination into a team.
I can't think of a reason for anyone not to read this, but if you are a parent or a teacher you should absolutely make the time for it. (I plan to give it to a couple teachers I know for
The only fault I find for it is the large amount of anecdotal evidence the author cites, this isn't to say he doesn't cite some scientific studies, not at all, but I would have preferred to see more focus on the objective science behind play. I suspect this focus has its roots in the fact that the study of play is a fairly young field.
Too little evidence and data based for me to appreciate, although there were some generalisations that seemed to hold some value.
The book was also pretty useless as a self-help book as there
There is a clear lack of scientific rigour and quite a lot of bias in the book, making it a relic of wishfull thinking rather than research.
Although I can see a germ of an idea in using play to create or at least sustain psycological safety.