Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation Illustrated Edition

Play as a Beautifully Written Serious TopicMany of us think of play as fun. That is true. But Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin take us step by step to understand that underneath that truth of fun play is a serious business. Fortunately the authors write in beautifully simple prose. This is a book we all need.The very first line in their introduction: “This book is about the role of play and playfulness in creativity and innovation”. Immediately they invite you to know play is essential to our lives and to the lives many other species. The authors are writing about survival itself. There is no jargon, just facts, brilliantly presented. Play is way more than fun.In a review I cannot capture the beauty or importance of this book. I will try to offer just two of the main points the authors make.First, play builds motor skills. Secondly, play generates creativity. Each of these two features offers survival. Survival and reproduction are the biological foundations of life. Play helps you and me find ourselves around the world.I have long admired the work of these two authors, never more than now. I owe them thanks. You owe it to you to read this small volume.

A well writen look at why we play and the advantages of play. The citation on the effects of alcohol are interesting.

Anyone who takes play seriously will want to take Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin's Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation just as seriously, at least. Not too seriously, because it is about play. Most importantly about a specific kind of play the authors call “playful play.” Playful play.It is written with reliably academic integrity, dense with carefully researched references and scholarly inferences, carefully worded and crafted, and yet for those of us who have had glimpses of the profound importance of fun and games, play and playfulness, creativity and innovation, reading this book is fun, deeply fun.For me, probably because I’ve spent at least 45 years contemplating the vicissitudes of play, and especially because I’ve just recently published a book of my own in which the very idea of playful play plays a, dare I say, pivotal role. The book is full of conceptual gifts - too many to itemize in this brief review. Here is a sampling:On page 5, the authors write: "Play appears to provide its own reward, at least in the short term, by being intrinsically enjoyable. The general presumption has been that the more tangible biological benefits of play usually come later in the individual’s lifetime…” With that simple statement they explain that, contrary to many play apologists, we don’t play because it’s good for us or because we’ll learn from it or change because of it. We play, at heart, because it’s fun. And yet, in retrospect, the authors tell us that those apologists are correct. Play is chock full of tangible benefits - biological, social, physical, intellectual.Riffle on to page 57 where the authors share with us an almost surgically concise definition of play and playfulness: "Play involves breaking rules. Playful play involves having fun while doing so.”There’s play, which has so many definitions as to be almost impossible to discuss, and playful play. Play breaks rules (think about it), and playful play is what makes it fun. So the idea of play includes things that may or may not be fun - rule-seeking, rule-breaking, rule-making, rule-changing acts that are core to learning new things, to research, to science, to exploring, risking, daring. But playful play makes it all fun."From play," they write, "may emerge a new perspective or cognitive tool that might be used at a later date, possibly in combination with other perspectives or tools, to solve a new challenge. In their different ways, both of these consequences of play are creative.”The authors go on to give some heartening examples of creative players in the arts and sciences. Players, playful players, whose playfulness redefines art and revises our very way of seeing the universe.And then there’s the connection between creativity and innovation: “In human behavior,” they write, "creativity refers broadly to generation new ideas, whereas innovation refers to changing the way in which things are done.” Simply by playing playfully.Even in our dreams, they explain, we are playful. Even in our very dreams.It’s not a big book or a heavy book or a long book; you can read it in less than a day. But it is so rich with implications, connections, explorations of the power and possibility of playful play that you will read it again and again, and it will be fun.

Bateson and Martin have made major contributions to the scientific literatures on human and nonhuman play so I was really anticipating a book-length discussion of the topic, and I was not disappointed. First, and as expected, they take a very balanced (and very readable) view of the research on play, unlike much of the recent popular and "scientific" treatments of play. Second, they take care to define play carefully, noting that it is a multidimensional construct; e.g., object play is different from social play, is different from fantasy play. Third, they expand on their earlier work on the ways in which play affects, and is affected by, development and evolution. In the last regard (the role of play in evolution), I found the book to be most provocative, and original. For example, they outline possible routes (and mechanisms) from play to creativity to innovation and how the latter may impact evolution. This, and other ideas put forth, provide scholars in the field with many testable hypotheses on the role of play in development and evolution. Additionally, their explicit policy-oriented discussions will make interesting reading for educators and others concerned with children.

Fascinating Read. We need more like this!