Girls, Boys, and Everyone Else, Just Want To Have Fun.

     Alright, I’m going to level with you, dear reader: this is the last assignment of my semester and it’s almost 2 am on December 23rd (getting closer to 3am at this point). I’ve been reading research paper after research paper trying to find something that inspires me to write about it, and I just haven’t been able to make it work. I tried writing about NASA weather balloons, metallurgical qualities of titanium and gold, chemical and mechanical methods for recycling, and I can’t even remember what else at this point. “I need something…fun,” I thought to myself as I scrolled through database entries on engineering, which, if you are unaware, are often not much fun at all. So eventually I added “fun” to my database search, and I found just what I needed. It may not be a research paper, but apparently its “scholarly or peer reviewed,” and I like what it has to say, so I’m going to tell you a little about it. 

From Research-Technology Management May-June 2017 publication Vol. 60, Issue 3, author Jim Euchner wrote a brief paper entitled Fun and challenge. It’s pretty lighthearted and doesn’t get into much technical stuff, but it does present a concept that I find very important for engineers and, well, everyone else. The concept of finding fun in challenges, and incorporating them into your work.

The paper starts off with a quote from Kurt Vonnegut’s Armageddon in Retrospect: 

“And, if you’ll investigate the history of science, my dear boy, I think you’ll find that most of the really big ideas have come from intelligent playfulness. All the sober, thin-lipped concentration is really just a matter of tidying up around the fringes of the big ideas.”

Euchner then goes on to talk about his grandfather, an inventor who “worked at Kodak during its golden years, where he invented a variety of still camera devices.” Euchner proceeds to describe the sundial his grandfather designed and built, which segues into another sundial, designed and produced by Julien Coyne;  this time a more complex one that displays the time in digital format, but only works from 10am to 2pm. This all sets up the big question about why people go to the extent to invent things that potentially have such limited use and often serve only as novelty.

The answer is: because it’s fun. It’s a challenge, and challenges are fun! To quote Euchner “People do not always seek that which is easiest to use. If they did, there would be no video games or pogo sticks.” This is how he describes the premise of John Thomas’s paper entitled FUN from 1987. John Thomas is “an expert in human computer interaction and…one of the founders of the art and science of usability,” and someone the author had worked under the leadership of. At the time of his writing, Euchner was the Vice President of Global Innovation at Goodyear, after previously holding senior management positions in the leadership of innovation at Pitney Bowes and Bell Atlantic. So why is he writing about challenges and fun?

Innovation, that’s why. Innovation has a key component which is stimulated by something far more potent than capitalistic endeavors claim credit for, and that is the aspect of fun, challenge, play, whatever you want to call it. Innovation is often the result of “intelligent playfulness,” as Vonnegut’s previously referenced quote nails right on the head, and is the key to an innovative workplace. Without challenges, not only is innovation lower in the workplace, but so is employee satisfaction with their jobs.

Euchner describes Paul Sandstorm, a Goodyear fellow and holder of more than 300 US patents, as a tinkerer who simply enjoyed trying out lots of things and allowing each experiment to “add to his knowledge base and create fodder for the next invention.” Again, another example of play paying off.

So what’s the point of this blog post? It’s to acknowledge the value of seeking challenges, of allowing oneself to enjoy the challenge and have fun doing it in order to learn that which wouldn't be experienced otherwise. It seems that this type of attitude is going the way of the do-do. Obligations and micromanagement make it difficult to experiment and play, and I believe society suffers because of it, not only because it has a negative impact on job satisfaction, but because it stifles innovation by not allowing that “intelligent playfulness” to come out to play and work the magic it works so well.

Dear reader, I hope that you are able to make time to play, to create for yourself, to accept challenges, and to have fun, for the sake of expanding your mind and skill sets if nothing else. And on that note, this is Jeremiah, signing off for the semester. May you have a very, merry Newtonmas and I hope to report back next year. Until then…

Work Cited

Euchner, J. (2017). Fun and challenge. Research-Technology Management, 60(3), 9–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2017.1300988