Interesting information for people who work in cubicles from Kathy Sierra.
According to the article, all work and no play not only make Jack a dull boy but also a dumber boy.
In this context play includes an enriching and stimulating environment. The theory is that we are able to create new brain cells, but only if we provide our brains with the proper conditions. Your brain not only needs interesting things to work on, but also to look at and play with, to keep in shape.
It's easy to think of all the stimulating things we can find outside of the office space and compare those to what we find at work. Outside of the office we can find new things in nature - the changing light of day, the sunrise, sunset, natural objects - trees, rocks, grass, water - the weather, animals, plants, insects - they all change, grow or move - and are very interesting. We can have pets or other animals around us...again very interesting. We can interact with different types of people - young/old, those with different backgrounds, different interests - with family members, friends and every so often some strangers to stir things up.
At work we become one-dimensional; we have only our work to bring us interest/joy/beauty/satisfaction. For some that may be enough. For others, considering the amount of time we spend at work we might want to think of ways to bring other forms of social/mental/emotional enrichment into our workspace. I think we may only now be seeing some of the effects on our social/mental/emotional development as we replace nature and human interaction - with indoor spaces and computers.
Have you noticed how few people just walk these days? We can't just walk and enjoy the air, the light, your breathing - we have to walk and talk on a cell phone. I also think some of the lack of civility that is creeping into our society can be blamed on the man/machine marriage. Talking to yourself used to be considered bad form - not anymore. Interrupting people, without asking their permission, used to be considered rude - not anymore - we are conditioned to think we deserve to be interrupted by cell phones, pagers, and email popping up.
Interesing maybe...to think of the movie Crash that just won the best picture. They start the movie with Don Cheadle saying people have become so disconnected from each other that they actually crash their cars into each other just to have human contact.
I've rambled enough I suppose...back to the point -
Kathy Sierra has some suggestions for blowing your own mind to counterract the mind numbing/dumbing effects of a non-stimulating environment. Basically try doing some things you don't normally do to give your brain a workout. It isn't enough to be doing a "lot" of things, they have to be activities that tap into parts of your brain you don't normally use.
The idea that we need to learn about lots of things - art, science, politics, history, math, religion, philosophy - and that we need to do at least some of that learning experientially, combining theory with practice, may seem old hat to anyone with a liberal arts type education or lifetime learners in general, but it is news to some and that's good.
We all need to learn more.
