Category: Play

  • The Games We Make Up About Ourselves: Interactive Narratives of Personal Transformation

    I'm not a gamer, but a segment in last week's On The Media, Personal Video Games, inspired me on several levels, offering insights into the ways that game designers are utilizing their craft to enable others to more effectively relate to their personal trials and tribulations. I've long been fascinated with the stories we make…

  • Creativity, Distractability and Structured vs. Unstructured Procrastination

    I have been practicing structured procrastination while allowing a few blog posts to, uh, ferment a bit longer (not to mention other things I want to get done). As evidence, after reading Jonah Lehrer's recent post about unstructured procrastination – Are Distractable People More Creative? – I feel inclined to write about that, rather than…

  • Interactive Displays at Disney World

    As I noted in my notes from UbiComp 2009, I missed a few sessions during the last day of the conference so I could explore more of Disney World, taking advantage of my free birthday pass to look for examples of how interactive displays were used to enhance guest experiences at Epcot Center. It felt…

  • Work, Liberty and the Pursuit of Pleasure

    I blogged a bit about Living Without A Goal recently and went down a path I didn’t originally anticipate, focusing on utility and value and appreciation in life. I’d intended to say more about James Ogilvy’s views on work, but once I was plumbing the depths of what makes life meaningful, valuable and worthwhile, I…

  • Living Without a Goal: Mattering Without Being Useful

    God and Marx are both dead. Relativism has dethroned absolutism. In our postmodern world, how do we create meaning in our lives now in the absence of externally defined Grand Goals? In Living Without a Goal: Finding the Freedom to Live a Creative and Innovative Life, author James Ogilvy encourages us to adopt a more…