A good power-up is easy to start & easy to select. When Mario is running through Bowser's kingdom, stomping on turtles and dodging fireballs, he needs to see his power-up clearly. Seeing such an obvious (and visible) power-up makes his choice easy, and fast, and simple. Grabbing the magic mushroom turns him into Super Mario, [...]
I keep a set of juggling balls in my desk (and in my backpack), so I can take a play break whenever I need one. If I have a really intense day, building marketing campaigns for clients, and I know I will have to spend multiple hours in focused work, I make sure to designate [...]
People feel life is meaningless when they don’t have goals, rules, and feedback. (These are the 3 attributes of games, according to Dr Jason Fox, that I describe in-depth in my short ebook Gamify Your Work.) Playing the game of life, and doing work that supports your lifestyle, is only made meaningful if we have goals to [...]
The singer Beyoncé Knowles has an alter-ego she calls Sasha Fierce. When she was young in her career, and nervous about a big show, she would internally decide it was not Beyoncé going onstage, it was Sasha Fierce. This character was brave, and strong, and confident. Assuming this persona allowed her to handle difficult challenges, because [...]
In the game of life, how well you play determines your success. Every day is another round, every year is another level, and at the end of the game, it doesn’t matter if you won the high score - all that matters is that you played the game well. There are lots of ways [...]
I'm just gonna say it: Candyland is a boring game. Candyland art by Midjourney I’ve played this game dozens - maybe hundreds - of times with my own children. We don’t play it anymore, because now that they are older, they agree that it is boring to play. But when they were [...]
Ever since I ran away and joined the circus (true story!) I’ve always seen my work as a form of play. The harder the work, the harder I have to play to get through it. I learned this from the Seven Dwarves. They worked all day in the mines, and they didn’t grumble and [...]
As the military general in charge of US operations in Europe during World War II, Dwight Eisenhower had many difficult days. He had to handle shifting priorities in complex, uncertain situations. His leadership was characterized by a keen understanding of the difference between urgency and importance. “What is important is seldom urgent and what is [...]
When the psychoanalyst Carl Jung was challenging the philosophy of Sigmund Freud, he needed complete focus. Freud had become the leading voice in psychiatry, and Jung supported him early in his career, because of their shared interest in the subconscious mind. But as Jung grew older, and saw more patients in his Zurich office, he [...]
When I spent a year attending the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, we spent a lot of time working hard on our ability to play. Class of 2001 The program was intense. Dozens of students from all around the world came together in a small town in Northern California, high up in the [...]