Who is this for?

Playology is for everyone. There is no “ideal” reader. I created Playology to not only inform and share information with the rest of the world, but as a way to catalogue my thoughts/articles/ideas/links/whatever in a fashion that inspires and pushes ME forward.

With that in mind, I do want to spend a little bit of time sharing some thoughts on some specific benefits Playology might offer to the rest of the world. It’s easy to see the benefits that a professional artist or performer might get from a collection of thoughts on play and creativity. It’s also easy to see how a parent or elementary school teacher might find inspiration in the thoughts I’m sharing. But what about the accountant? What about the Assistant Director of HR for “Generic Widget-Making Company?” What sort of benefits does a focus on play, creativity, and imagination offer them?

Plenty! We live in a world that is moving faster than our old systems are able to keep up. The kids who will be entering kindergarten in the fall of 2015 will be most likely be graduating from college and entering the workforce in the year 2031. Think about what that for a moment- we can’t predict what our world will be like in the year 2020, let alone 2031! How can we assume that the skills and information being taught to children now will even be relevant when these kids enter the workforce? WE CAN’T!!!

Since we can’t our best bet is to prepare students, employees, and employers to be ready to think outside the box. We need to be able to apply imagination and creative thinking to not only our “now” issues but the unknown issues we haven’t even encountered yet!

That’s where Playology comes in. By applying the basics of creative play, of improvisation, creative dramatics, and game/role-playing, we are able to get back in touch with the child-like ability to think outside the box and problem solve without the barriers and roadblocks adult-hood puts in our way. We also get in touch with some genuine primal biology that releases stress and allows us to have more fun.

I could ramble on all day- but one of my creative-thinking heroes says a lot of this in a much better way.

Ken Robinson is a creativity expert and education consultant from England who has been writing and thinking about the issues facing our world as creativity and play is marginalized more and more. This is a talk he gave at the 2006 TED Conference. This talk, by the way, is the most watched TED Talk in history. And it’s brilliant. Enjoy!

-Brian