In our relentlessly optimized world, Justin Neuman calls for more nothing. More time for both adults and kids to engage in free, unstructured play. More opportunities to play games without competition or scoring. More chances to do things without needing to produce outputs or achieve goals. More “transitional spaces” through which we can practice, imagine, and think.
For years, I’ve commuted on foot from Grand Central Station to 14th Street, 30 blocks, give or take. I told myself it was exercise, or that I was saving the subway fare, or that I liked the air. But the truth is I was thinking. Or rather, I was letting thinking happen. The lecture I couldn’t outline at my desk would assemble itself somewhere around 34th Street, the important points falling into sequence with my footfalls, the argument clarifying as if the motion itself were doing the editing. I wasn’t working on the lecture. I was walking in it, the way my kids were playing in Catan.
More stories from Aeon
Dolphins and Other Lovers
“The Andoque of the Amazon know what we have forgotten: the forest’s most beautiful creatures are also its most dangerous.”
Worm Munch Matters
“The lives that slither and scurry beneath the soil’s surface are vital for ecological health: now we can listen in to them.”
Beyond Greece and Rome
“A dramatic shift in perspective is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world.’”
The Looting of Science Fiction
“Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future.”
Skill Nostalgia
“Is all the beekeeping, baking and leatherwork just escapist fantasy or the start of a radically human approach to work?”
The Hypercurious Mind
“ADHD isn’t merely a dysfunction. It’s best understood as an impulsive motivational drive for novel information.”
