3Play vs. Recreation

At this point, it’s time to make an important distinction: the difference between play and recreation.

Both are hugely important and offer lots of benefits in terms of well-being and productivity. However, they serve very different functions, and though both can inspire creativity in a business setting, they do it in different ways.

The distinction, as we’re defining it here, is that play is an immersive, conscious process that opens us up to new ways of thinking and new solutions, whereas recreation is a distraction—a break, if you will, from playing.

The confusion arises partly out of semantics. As we said at the outset, the word “play” is taken to connote a lack of seriousness that, especially for adults, is synonymous ...

Get Funny Business now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.