I was just thinking to myself yesterday that play is extremely important. The best people in any creative vocation seem to be the playful ones: those people who enjoy messing around with new (to them) ideas. Tinkerers, explorers, experimenters, dabblers.

There are two kinds of play, and both are important, but they exist in a tiny hierarchy of usefulness, and the lower kind of play is strictly less useful than the higher kind.

The lower kind of play is merely to recharge, and the activity itself doesn’t leave me enriched in any real-world way once I’ve disengaged. For me, video games and candy books (merely fun page-turners without insight or other take-aways) fall into this category. They’re _extremely useful_ for when I cannot make my mind focus,

The higher kind of play is still undirected and without deadlines, so it still _is_ play, but there are take-aways. A good example would be biographies, which are extremely entertaining to me, but also require more brain power than candy books. From biographies I take away inspiration and perhaps some advice in a useful form (demonstrated human behavior). Tinkering with electronics or software projects or _anything_ really that captures my curiosity leaves a residue of value after I’m done.

I think I should never engage in low play when I’m capable of high play, or I’m just wasting an investment. Time is precious, and play (both kinds) is important for maximizing it.