Stuart Brown: Why play is vital -- no matter your age

http://www.ted.com A pioneer in research on play, Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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• Play

[stilly2009]

yeah, play is important, if you' play the piano', play tennis', play with yourself or others, it can produce the'feelgood factor'you 'feelgood' about yourself and others, this is important, dont work yourself to death, be happy!!!

[boxant]

Extremely interesting speech!

[AppleSouffle]

Nickdevoil, oh, you're an art history major. So do you enjoy working at McDonalds?

Apart from your anal and self-indulgent comment, I enjoyed the talk.

[nickdevoil]

Unfortunate comments on the Bruegel.

1. The painting dates from he second half of the 16th century, not the 15th.

2. It's called Children's Games and depicts... children, completely invalidating the attempted argument.

3. "I think this is a typical picture of what it was like in a courtyard then". Bruegel wasn't a straightforward realist. He specialized in surreal, outlandish compositions intended to convey a moral message.

Apart from that, I enjoyed the talk!

[tobo86]

So if I'm massively serious but every now and then blessed with being playful, anyone know how I can increase the FEELING of playfulness...................­..?

[tobo86]

@KitUmscheid Dayam. No wonder I'm not very playful now! Thanks crappy childhood!!

[selvmordspilot]

I loved this video. But I don't like the term "serious play".

Why not call it "sincere play" instead? The other is almost contradicting itself.

[selvmordspilot]

@ticopride : depends of the game i guess. There's a lot of different games out there.

But e.g. Portal is an example of a game that I'm pretty sure is good for anyone to play through. It's short, non-repetitive and intelligently fun.

[appellaa]

is he....xboxahoy? :o

[5packzach]

Don't get it. After saying how bad being a coach potato is (Bart Simpson) he then says that watching movies can be good and be referred to as play.

Before I even watched this video I assumed he meant play as being outside, running around, laughing and enjoying yourself.

[ticopride]

I wonder how playing video games fits into his conception of "play".