Under the right conditions, hobbies and physical activities become deep play. But what exactly is it?
Under the right conditions, hobbies and physical activities become deep play, taking on additional layers of meaning and personal significance. Historical figures, like Winston Churchill, relished his deep play. Which, for him, was painting. “I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body,” he said, “more entirely absorbs the mind.”
Ol’ Churchill knew that his deep play was important not just for the fun of it, but for the positive impacts on his work. Something Alex Pang knows all about.
Alex is the author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. He’s made it his life’s work to show that success doesn’t demand longer hours. It demands more rest. And deep play is a central part of it.
But what exactly is it? How can you find the deep play that’s right for you? And can it revolutionize your work?
A few curiosities you’ll uncover in this episode:
• The 4 elements of deep play
• Why Winston Churchill likened painting to battle
• The often-misunderstood relationship between work and rest
Did You Know?
“It is not enough merely to switch off the lights which play upon the main and ordinary field of interest. A new field of interest must be illuminated. The tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts.” – Winston Churchill
Credits
Curious State is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast hosted and produced by Doug Fraser.
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Podcast Manager - Adam Cecil
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Intern - Brendan Picha
The Quick and Dirty Tips network is a division of Macmillan Publishers in partnership with Mignon Fogarty, Inc.
Have a question? Or a topic you’d like covered on the show? Maybe you just love sending emails? Whichever shoe fits, tie it on and send me a message at curious@quickanddirtytips.com.
Doug
It's nighttime in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The sandy landscape covers an area of about 1000 square miles, knifed by hundreds of mountain ranges. Pronghorn antelope, lizards and rattlesnakes are just a few species of wildlife that call this place home. It's quiet here, and much darker than most of us are used to. Shine a flashlight and the beam feels like it gets swallowed by the black void around you, except for a pair of reflective eyes here and there. That is unless you're out there the week leading up to Labor Day, then you'll find a whole new species lighting up the night. Since 2005 rustle the electric giraffe has been a staple of the Burning Man festival, an annual art centric party about 100 miles outside of Reno. Standing at 18 feet tall, the four wheels he has for hooves roll him at a leisurely walking pace, maxing out about five miles an hour. He has glittery lava lamps for horns, and speakers to bring the party wherever he goes. He really earns his nickname of “rave raff.” Now, Russell started out as a side project for creator Lindsey Lawler. Lindsey described it as an endless canvas that you can keep changing and working on, a hobby became something more. For Lindsay his electric giraffe turned into deep play: a form of meaningful play that can have big impacts on your work life. Something Alex Pang knows all about.
Alex
I'm Alex Pang, and I'm a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. And I work on kind of the intersection of technology, creativity, and the science behind work and rest.
Doug
He's the author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. Alex has made it his life's work to show that success doesn't demand longer hours, it demands more rest. And deep play is a central part of it. But what exactly is it? And how can you find deep play that's right for you? And it can actually revolutionize your work? Let's find out. I'm Doug Fraser, and this is Curious State.
Alex
You know Winston Churchill said that in order for busy people who are accustomed to staying active, it wasn't enough to just try and shut down. You had to have something else in your life that was just as compelling.
Doug
And for many high achievers, that something is deep play.
Alex
In my book, I talk about deep play as serious hobbies that help ambitious, creative, busy people rediscover or remind themselves of what they love most about their work, and which serve as a way of first of all, by providing some balance in their lives. Giving them the kind of structured opportunity to take breaks when they otherwise wouldn't. It can also serve as a kind of creative wellspring as a place in which people can explore new ideas that sometimes turn into new works or new projects.
Doug
How does deep play differ from distraction?
Alex
So that's a good question. So, you know, fundamentally, I think that you can think of distraction as a condition where your attention should be focused on point A, but instead, it is focused on point B, because of some, let's say, shiny, blinky intermediary thing that's pulling your attention away from where it ought to go. That's a kind of dry cycle, you know, sort of, you know, scientific explanation of distraction. But I think that the, you know, the difference with deep play, is that deep play actually offers particular rewards in terms of rest and restoration, but it also connects in some subtle but important ways to people's work in a manner that both makes the play itself sort of more attractive and invigorating. And also, I think makes often makes people's work better as well. So I think though, you know, none of those are things that are claims that distraction can make, you know as benefits for us.
Doug
Under the right conditions, hobbies and physical activities, become deep play activities that are rewarding on their own, but take on additional layers of meaning and personal significance. Historical figures like ole, Winston Churchill relished his deep play, which for him was painting. “I know of nothing which without exhausting the body, he said, more entirely absorbs the mind.” Because play is voluntary, engaging, rewarding, and imaginative. It's often absorbing and effortless, even when deep play is challenging, it's not difficult or exhausting the way a hard day at work is. When you're getting into deep play, is there an end goal in mind? Or are you just playing for the sake of playing?
Alex
I suppose the answer is yes, I mean, it's played for or it's played for its own sake, though, lots of play also has particular endpoints. So, you know, for example, a lot of the scientists who, who I studied in the book, including lots of Nobel Prize winners, and you know, people who have scientific constants, or you know, or elements named for them, were really serious mountain climbers, and, you know, climbing, none of them were geologists, you know, all of them were sort of working in other fields. So this was entirely a hobby. But climbing is a great example of something where, when they talked about it, you know, being in the outdoors, having this different kind of engagement with nature, all of those things were really valuable. But it was also the case that getting to the top of the mountain had, you know, offered a clear reward. And so it wasn't, you know, I don't know anyone, I don't know anyone who gave up climbing because they always didn't reach the peak. On the other hand, reaching the peak usually, as you know, is part of the pleasure, if only because it serves as a way of putting some kind of clear definition and clear boundaries around how long the activity lasts. So, you know, so you mainly undertake it, because it's something that's enjoyable, and kind of rewarding and fulfilling. But there's also nothing wrong with the play having some particular kind of, you know, sort of interior, interior endpoint or interior logic that says, when you're done.
Doug
Let's say you're binge watching TV, this may be stretching a little bit, but that might be able to be considered a type of mental play. But can it be defined as deep play?
Alex
The serious answer is that the complexity of the show itself kind of actually does matter. So I think it'd be different, you know, so let's say binge watching White Lotus, yes, binge watching Teletubbies, probably not. I mean, you know, unless you're a child psychologist, or sort of, you know, sort of there's, there's some, there's some other angle into Teletubbies, that turns out to be really compelling for you.
Doug
Okay, so watching TV is more play than deep play. But what separates the two, it turns out, all deep play shares four characteristics. Number one, deep play is mentally absorbing.
Alex
For people who find their work mentally absorbing and find it difficult to kind of detach from it, having something else that is just as absorbing is, it's a lot easier to shift over into that, to cultivate it, to sort of, you know, to take it on as a as, sort of a long term hobby, than it is to just like sit on the couch, and you know, and veg and try to do nothing. One of the really interesting things that I discovered when researching the book Rest was that an awful lot of things that are mental, that are restorative, that allow us to recharge the mental and physical energies that we spend at work actually are, like, themselves pretty challenging, you know, and it's rest is something that is much more active. It's not just about doing absolutely nothing or being as passive as you can, though that can be a part of it. And so I think that the sort of the theme that that kind of mental engagement in deep play is also important because it helps the deep play itself be more restorative for its players.
Doug
Number two, deep play offers players a new context in which to use some of the same skills that they use in their work. In the case of Churchill's painting, he likened painting to a battle. “It is a proposition he said, which whether a few or numberless parts, is commanded by a single unity of conception”. Number three, deep play offers some of the same satisfaction as work, but it also offers different clear rewards, thanks to differences and media or scale or pace. And finally, number four, deep play provides a living connection to the players past. For example, it could build on things you did with your grandparents as a kid. It's a way to keep the connection to your past alive. Now, all that being said, how can you find the kind of deep play if it's right for you? When, when people are searching for the kind of deep play that works for them, because it's not prescriptive, right, there's not, oh, you're in this industry, you will enjoy this kind of deep play, this is what you should do. It's rather, depending on the context of the individual. So what-what are the signs that someone has found deep play that will work for them?
Alex
Hmm, that's a-that's an excellent question. And, you know, there are some, you know, some cultural or professional order of norms that influence or of choice of choice of deep play among people, you know, so I have friends who make careers in the Air Force, and golf is a big thing among Air Force officers, for example, you know, whereas, you know, climbing, you know, mountain climbing classic, you know, playing classical music among certain certain scientists. But, you know, it's not because of like the nature of the work, it has to do with, you know, some weird historical stuff about, you know, 20th century physics, and the fact that there were several Air Force bases that are surprisingly close to really good golf courses. Activities that are most likely to be really, really restorative and ones that you can practice for a long time that can keep you engaged, or for years and years, are ones that offer some of the same kinds of rewards as your work, but in a very different kind of context. So that sounds a little counterintuitive. But you know, one of the things that makes deep play compelling, is that it can be like science, or like politics or arguing a case in the court of law, in that it may offer some of the same kinds of rewards in terms of, you know, a payoff for preparation, or the need to be able to, you know, sort of give teams of people a clear vision about what you're going to do. You know, sort of there's an inspiration, maybe an inspirational dimension. But it's also something that in which the rewards come are of, more quickly, and sort of more clearly. So you can spend years working on a scientific experiment, or, you know, working on a book, and the results are just kind of meh. Whereas at the end of the day, either you've reached the top of the mountain, or you haven't, for me, for example, my deep play is photography, you know, it's a way of literally seeing the world in a little more detail. And with a little more attention. Most of my work is very verbal, right? It's talking to people, it's giving talks, it's writing books and articles. So doing something that's very visual as a hobby is, you know, but still has that kind of analytical dimension, that something I can do when I'm, you know, traveling for work, all of that, and that it's something that I remember my dad doing when I was five years old, and we were, you know, doing, and he was dragging me around doing fieldwork in the interior of Brazil, you know, all of that together, makes carrying a camera and photography for me, sort of a kind of deep play in a way that it would not for people who had different backgrounds and experiences, and you know, and did different kinds of work.
Doug
Are there symptoms for you, when you know, you're not getting enough deep play in your life?
Alex
I would not say that it's the one weird trick that solves everything. But I do think that I am, I do tend to be, you know, kind of happier and more contented and I think also more productive when I actually set aside time for the stuff. And even having written a book about it. I have to remind myself that, you know, it's actually a good thing to schedule in time for the long walk or the workout, et cetera that, you know, we always, we always overestimate how much free time we'll have in the future.
Doug
It's like when you buy a book, you also think you're buying the time to read it. This is called planning fallacy. We display an optimism bias that shoves down the part of our brain that knows how much time we’ll actually have in favor of rose tinted thought glasses that tell us how much time we hope to have. There are so many other factors at play in our brain’s planning room, take focalism for example, which is where you give too much weight to a single piece of information, skewing your other judgments, like knowing how much time a certain task took before. And then ignoring that information while you plan your day.
Alex
Knowing that we do that leaves us a little better equipped to plan in for sort of things that otherwise we might in the moment, rationalize away or not choose to do. Part of what makes deep play for really busy people valuable is that it serves that complexity kind of serves as a forcing function to make people take vacations or to take time off. It's an easy, deeply engaging break from sitting in front of the keyboard, you know, sort of trying to, try to make the printer go burr.
Doug
Have you ever read the gospel of relaxation? It's a curious essay by William James. And he argued that overwork has imprinted itself on the American psyche, we live with, quote, our inner panting and expectancy and bring breathlessness and tension to work. James said that overwork had been caught from the social atmosphere, kept up by tradition, and idealized by many as the admirable way of life. And that was way back in 1899. Long before the golden age of digital multitasking, radios weren't even a decade old yet, and Russell the giraffe was over 100 years away from rolling around in the Nevada desert, a curious metal creature brought to life through the restful act of deep play. To quote Churchill just one more time, it is not enough merely to switch off the lights, which play upon the main and ordinary field of interest, a new field of interest must be illuminated, the tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened not merely by rest, but by using other parts. So rest is not simply the absence of work some period of time between the everyday grind, it's a chance to see the deep connection between work and play, and enhance both in the process. After all, work and rest aren't opposites, their partners. As Alex says, when we stop and rest properly, we're not paying a tax on creativity. We're investing in it.
Check out the book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less in both written and audio form wherever books are sold. If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future episodes, email me at curious@quickanddirtytips.com. If you prefer talking over typing, leave me a voicemail at 757-541-8471. For more information about the show and where you can find us across the internet. Check out our show notes or visit quickanddirtytips.com. Special thanks to the Quick and Dirty Tips team. Adam Cecil, our audience development and podcast manager, Morgan Christiansen, podcast and advertising Operations Specialist, Holly Hutchings, our digital Operations Specialist, Davina Tomlin, marketing and publicity assistant, and our trusty intern, Brendan Picha. Curious State is hosted and produced by me, Doug Fraser for the Quick and Dirty Tips network, which is a division of Macmillan publishers in partnership with Mignon Fogarty, Inc. Until next time, stay curious.