Play "Pitfall"

Pat Kane hasn't been posting much about the Play Ethic this summer, but he did write a recent article about the benefits of a playful approach to life. In it, he playfully points to a potential pitfall of engaging in your life on a deeper life -- you start to realize that you can't pursue all of the interesting angles and opportunities that emerge:

"But it's a paradox of the play mentality that the more enthusiasm you have for your self-chosen activities, the more of those activities seem to be on offer. Which leads to a counter-intuitive truth: you need more energy for a player's lifestyle, not less.

Time spent freely surfing on the web crowds your brain with ideas. Lengthy conversations with fellow players at odd times in the day suggest new projects, new angles on things. Your mind-maps teem with possibilities. And where the worker worries whether they'll ever attain the life they want (see the smokers in BBC2's The Smoking Room), the player's anxiety is whether they can realise all the opportunities that life presents them with."