The Best Kind Of Work Feels Like Play
“Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.”
When you work on the right thing, it doesn’t feel like work. As Naval Ravikant says above, it looks like work to other people, but it feels like play to you.
You know if you’ve had this feeling before. Time melts away and suddenly it’s three hours later and all you did was mess around and try and make something cool.
I get this feeling most often with writing. It doesn’t feel like work, but it looks like work to other people. And that’s the secret.
The Best Kind Of Work Feels Like Play To You But Looks Like Work To Others.
When you’re in the flow state of play, you’re creating for the sake of creating. You have an end goal, but you’re mostly experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t. You’re being creative because it’s fun.
Stephen King describes this feeling in his book, On Writing:
“Writing is at its best— always, always, always— when it is a kind of inspired play for the writer. I can write in cold blood if I have to, but I like it best when it’s fresh and almost too hot to handle.”
Remember, you’ve found the right kind of work if it looks like work to other people from the outside.
Anyone watching Stephen King slave over his next novel would say it looks like work. And it IS work - he just loves it.
If what you love to do doesn’t look like work, then it has no utility. You’re not producing any value, or at least there’s no obvious market for the thing you’re doing or creating.
The last six months of my life have been writing and reading feature film scripts. This feels like play to me but looks like work to other people. Not everyone gets a thrill from writing and reading. I do.
Most importantly, though, there’s a clear market for the products I’m trying to create. Not every project will go forward (in fact, most won’t) but there’s a market for them. And that’s what matters.
The internet has vastly increased the potential market for the stuff you create. If no one thinks what you’re doing is actual work, test it out on the internet. See if anyone is willing to pay for the stuff you make that you think is cool. You may be surprised.
The Best Kind of Work Gives You Energy Back.
Play is play because it’s fun. It gives you energy back as you do it. You feel energized and alive, not exhausted and burnt out.
That’s why you want to find a career that fires you up - that gives you loads of energy back, no matter how much time you spend doing it.
My wife knows she’s in the right career because when she’s on set for 12+ hours acting, she has more energy than she’s ever had in her life.
I know I’m in the right place because I can talk about ideas and writing and structure and scenes all day long. I can’t get enough. That’s what you’re looking for.
When You Find The Right Thing, No One Can Compete With You.
When you’re “playing,” you’re doing it for its own sake. You’re not doing it only for a specific outcome, like to get rich or famous.
You’re doing it because it lights up your soul - it engages that thing inside you that makes you feel like you’re capable of anything.
And because you’re not married to an outcome, over time, you are going to outcompete everyone else who is doing it as “work.”
Here’s Naval explaining how this functions in his own life:
“I’m always ‘working.’ It looks like work to others, but it feels like play to me. And that’s how I know no one can compete with me on it. Because I’m just playing, for sixteen hours a day. If others want to compete with me, they’re going to work, and they’re going to lose because they’re not going to do it for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.”
That’s the power of finding something that feels like play to you but looks like work to others. For you, it’s like art that’s done for its own sake. It creates meaning in your life. Here’s Naval again:
“Art is creativity. Art is anything done for its own sake. What are the things that are done for their own sake, and there’s nothing behind them? Loving somebody, creating something, playing. To me, creating businesses is play. I create businesses because it’s fun, because I’m into the product.”
When You Find The Right Thing, Eventually You Win.
If you iterate, play, and create for long enough, eventually you’ll get paid out. You’ll out-compete everyone else because you’re addicted to it.
And when you combine that addiction with leverage and uncapped upside, you get rich. Here’s Naval one more time:
“The winners of any game are the people who are so addicted they continue playing even as the marginal utility from winning declines.”
Getting rich is a by-product of finding the thing you love to do in a market that values that thing. And then playing around for years.
Start now.
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SOURCES
Jorgenson, Eric. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness. Magrathea Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Naval Ravikant: https://nav.al/specific-knowledge and https://nav.al/rich
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft (A Memoir of the Craft (Reissue)). Scribner. Kindle Edition.