I model the distinction between play and work thusly:
The outcome of a game is uncertain. As we play, we make choices which open up new choices. The game is as a bifurcating tree of possibility, and we move within it. Again, the end result is uncertain, and results from the interplay between the player and the game’s conditions, which is a creative, iterative process. In some games, there may be no definite “end” at all. When is a garden finished?
Some examples of games:
- Designing and building a house from scratch
- Cooking
- Raising a family
- Farming
- Uniting the standard model with special relativity
- War
- Writing poetry
- Love
- Life
A task is the opposite. We work to make real a certain and specific outcome. The end result is determined, and will either come to pass or not. When we work, we know exactly what we’re aiming at. There is still interplay with conditions, but only with the effect of delaying or thwarting our plan; accordingly, there is minimal creativity involved. We are following a step-by-step formula, and our only contribution is effort and time.
Some examples of tasks:
- Changing a tire
- Moving a couch from point A to point B
- Running a marathon
- Playing Beethoven’s 9th symphony on the piano
- Cooking fries at McDonalds
- Building the Lego Death Star
- Taking out the trash
- Doing 50 pushups
- Stealing the Declaration of Independence
It’s not that working to complete a task is necessarily worse than playing in a game; obviously, both are necessary ingredients in any flourishing life. But I have found this model useful, especially in understanding why some jobs are so degrading to the spirit: the balance is all out of whack.