Homo Ludens; Tomorrow's Working Human is a Playing Human

In 1938, a Dutch cultural theorist named Johan Huizinga, suggested that the primate species that dominates planet Earth is misnamed as Homo sapiens, which translates as “wise man.” He suggested a new one: Homo ludens, which broadly translates as “playing man.” The old name was chosen by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758, and if our history since then has told us anything, it is that the human is anything but wise. A long list of things fits under the title, Things Humans have Fouled Up Beyond Repair. We are not born with wisdom and in life it quite gravely eludes us, as we have learned with the many disastrous social and technological structures we’ve brought to life since then. What we are born with is the ability to play, which is not what you think. Play is not goofing around or in any way indulging carelessness or childishness, even though children do it more naturally than adults and sometimes they are quite careless and silly. Play is how we naturally venture into our environment, put our remarkable, many-boned and capable hands on things and learn about them. Play is how we observe, form hypotheses and test them, sample building materials and ways of growing food, find new art media, music, and other sources of inspiration. It is how we form connections with others of our species, find ways to inspire and lead them, and how we take ever more extraordinary risks in exploring what is possible. Play, not thinking or wisdom, is the mechanism that has enabled the advancements we have made up to now. Every scientist, philosopher, engineer, writer, poet, artist, musician, or explorer who ever stumbled across or created something amazing and became recognized for it, did so through play. Play is how we invent ourselves as children, and if we retain in adulthood the curiosity, courage, and willingness to fail that served that purpose in childhood, we draw on the most decisive survival advantage of our species. Thinking and wisdom don’t actually get us very far – in fact, taking wisdom for granted as the defining characteristic of our species might be what is holding us back from making real strides. This podcast is created by Michele Rochon-Wood of Workplace Culture Store. Join us for a fascinating exploration of what makes work worthwhile, and why we need more play and we need it now.