When the going gets tough, the tough get playful
“The 13 tracks on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are the pinnacle of the Beatles’ eight years as recording artists. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo...
How to be less optimal
As we consider how to embrace outsiders, how to be inclusive in the truest sense, I find myself drawn to what I consider to be the central question of...
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
“In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry...
Work is Important, Play is Vital
“Man’s maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play.” – Friedrich Nietzsche Social gatherings would be much more lively affairs if we asked...
The 4-step Remix Method for getting ideas
Last week we showed Kirby Ferguson’s brilliant TED talk based on his brilliant documentary series. Like us folks at Open for Ideas, he appears to be fascinated with where ideas...
Playing to innovate – learning to do things just for the hell of it
This week our Friday film is an interview with the lovely Matt Ballantine from Stamp London, done at this year’s Silicon Beach (one of my favouritest conferences in the...
How play leads to great inventions
Steven Johnson is a prolific writer, thinker and speaker. His book ‘Where Good Ideas Come From’ is a brilliant look at how innovation is often a gradual process rather...
It pays to play. Solid research that supports workplace whoopee.
Work hard. Play hard. The familiar mantra of ambitious commuters dragging their heels up the corporate ladder. Speed your way through endless to-do-lists and back-to-back meetings for eight hours...
Play. Your brain will thank you.
The Greek philosophers rained praise on play, hailing leisure time as the foundation of ‘the good life’. More recently, Professor Jonathan Gershuny, Oxford University’s time-use expert, found that some...
How innovation is like playing with Lego
As they get older (and they are still only 5 and 6) I find I’m learning more and more from my kids, both in what they tell me and...