Rekindling the Joy: Why Adults Should Make Time for Mindful Play
How to use "my toy truck" to drive breakthroughs in personal growth in building advanced skills.
Play is something special. It comes naturally to children, but for many of us, play drifts away from our daily lives as we age. It’s a shame because It is deeply intertwined with our personal growth. As a lifelong learner, I must make time for mindful play in my daily life regarding anything I want to develop as an advanced skill. If I’m working on writing, I need mindful play time in writing. If I’m working on programming, I need mindful playtime in programming.
What do I mean by mindful play? Mindful play refers to engaging in play activities with conscious awareness and focus on the present moment without judgment of the outcome. By contrast, mindless play is the all-too-common distraction-filled, dopamine-hit-inducing time destroyer that commonly sits on our smartphones, computers, and tablets. Mindless play encourages going through the motions and engaging in activities out of habit or boredom. Mindful play allows us to immerse ourselves in the activity, fully experiencing its joy and benefits.
There is a simplicity to mindful play that can’t be forced, or it stops being play. Alan Watts expressed this beautifully: “When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point.” It isn’t about the result. It’s about the process, the journey, and the experience itself. If you want to be a better guitar player, you certainly must practice, but you also must play. Finding time daily to play in your craft will have transformative effects.
Stephen King shares his daily practice of play in his book On Writing:
I work on what’s important to me in the morning, for three hours. Usually, in the afternoon, I have what I call my “toy truck,” a story that might develop or might not, but meanwhile it’s fun to work on.
Over the years, I’ve always kept a “toy truck” around. It’s mostly some little idea I’m working out in code that is a joy to work on for its own sake. Its purpose isn’t to be practical or meaningful to anyone but me. Instead, I reach for it to dip into a flow state. It’s a way for me to work out an idea, pattern, or concept I want to think through. Maybe it’s to work out an idea I’ve read about or just an excuse to try out a new programming language, library, or concept. But without fail, this time I’ve dedicated to play has lead to breakthroughs in my understanding on topics and has even shaped my professional pursuits in career focus, all because of time spent playing. There is something deeply gratifying about learning through mindful play.
Don’t get me wrong. We have to show up and do the hard work it takes to develop as well-rounded people. We learn a lot from pushing ourselves on outcome-driven projects, timelines, and working with others, but in the moments between that, we owe it to ourselves to rekindle our joy in our craft and make time for mindful play.
Notable Videos I enjoyed this week
Worst Practices in Software Development: Mitchell Hashimoto uses a simple code editor
Mitchell Hashimoto (Co-founder of Hashicorp) gives an honest take on his simple editor setup. I’ve been a fan of Hashimoto’s work in Go for years, and this video is just a beautiful glimpse of his approach and perspective.
This 100 Year Old Bench Should Have Fallen Apart
My father introduced me to Rex Krueger’s YouTube channel a couple of years ago. I really enjoy his approach to pragmatic craftsmanship under constraints. This video explores the unlikely story of an old bench that “shouldn’t” be as sturdy as it is, and yet, here we are. It’s a great lesson in theory vs practice.
Killer Mike - PART 1: Don't Let The Devil ft. El-P, thankugoodsir
Killer Mike - PART 2: Motherless ft. Eryn Allen Kane
I first discovered Killer Mike when he released his album RAP Music, after years of rapping with El-P in Run the Jewels, he’s releasing a solo album in June. I’m pretty excited about it and this new track Motherless does not disappoint. These new tracks are so good.