Puzzle Talk’s guest writer series continues, this time it’s all about serious play!
The authors, Dr. Aarni Tuomi and Dr. Mário Passos Ascenção, work as Principal Lecturers at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, a leading business school in Finland. In their work, they regularly consult companies and teach master’s students about the surprising and serendipitous intricacies of serious play.
I’ve had the joy of collaborating with Aarni and Mário through puzzle workshops. The idea of serious play really resonated with me, because that’s exactly what puzzling can be. So I invited the duo to share a few of their thoughts on the topic with you, dear reader.
🧡: Rosa
Puzzling and playing, seriously
By Dr. Aarni Tuomi & Dr. Mário Passos Ascenção
“You can discover more about a person, a team and a company in three-four hours of play than in a year of meetings.” - Mário Passos Ascenção
Play predates writing and is as universal as laughter. Every culture has games, toys, and playful rituals, just as every culture laughs. Across time and cultures, people have filled idle moments with games that bond, teach, and challenge. Children enact adult roles in imaginative backyard adventures, while communities pass down skills through playful interaction; no lectures needed. Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga emphasized the deep roots of play in human civilization, famously describing modern humans as Homo Ludens (Huizinga, 1938), from Latin homō lūdēns (playful man).
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