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Ask most people to define work, and they`ll give you an anecdotal or similarity type of definition. If they do propose a definition, it`s along the lines of obligation: "Work is what you have to do to pay the bills," or "Work is what you have to do to...."

When they`ve defined it, ask them if they believe work is "fun." In most cases, no, they don`t. Work is a bad thing, annoying or irritating, and definitely isn`t the same as fun.

We often say that we worked hard today, but how often do we talk about children playing hard? In some instances, parents will say their child played hard today, which is a good thing! The child is tired, satisfied, and had a good day. But how come we never hear about a child working hard?

If we DO hear that a child worked hard today, it`s often in the context of child labor laws, sweat shops, or overseas child-work abuse.

So what exactly is work? How does work differ from play? What distinguishes work from fun?

I`ll propose that work is effort---a force. That force/effort is used or directed to change, modify, or otherwise affect a person`s surrounding envrionment.

Follow that logic, and the underlying proposition is that work is directly associated with action. So are "fun" and "play." So what separates work, as a series of actions, from the other two?

Does work always have to be a bad kind of thing? Is there a difference in types of work? For example, how does work categorize into drudgery, labor, chores, or development?

Craig if ever I find myself in Batavia I will make it a point to invite you out for lunch :)

Don`t know if this is any kind of answer, but I actually have thought a lot about this. Primitive and pre-civilized cultures generally have no concept of "work." And if you think about it, the things we now do for "play" are the very things they do for "work" -- fishing, hunting, sleeping outside in the woods, trekking long distances in the wilderness, carving & pottery, learning to make fire with a bow drill, gathering wild berries...

You propose that "work is effort---a force. That force/effort is used or directed to change, modify, or otherwise affect a person`s surrounding envrionment."

So, "work" really only comes into the picture as part of civilization: primitive & pre-civilized peoples don`t work, and they also don`t change, modify, or otherwise affect their surrounding environments... in other words, they do not progress. They have no need to progress because they`re happy, and their lifestyles are sustainable indefinitely to boot.

Civilization came about because of the first "work": farming. If you`re interested in a thought-provoking essay about what this first work meant for the people who undertook it, check out Jared Diamond`s essay "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" at http://www.awok.org/worst-mistake/

So I guess the question that comes to mind for me then is, is progress possible without work? Is it even desirable in the context of human evolution? We are, after all, evolved to live in small, nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers.... it is literally not in our nature to "work."

—paula

Sometimes the idea of "work" brings people to shudder.  I like the statement that Paula made that the things we do for play were what primitive cultures did for work.  In a way, I believe that work and play can be very fuzzy.  With "work" there are expectations that one is working towards and "play" doesn`t have an outcome in mind. 

For example, I played basketball in high school and a couple years in college.  There were times that basketball was a lot of work.  Running ladders, doing repeated shots, practice, etc.  My coaches had high expectations and expected us to give 110% or go home.  The results mattered and at the end of the season, it was all about the wins, losses, and playoffs.  But there were a lot of times that basketball was just fun--didn`t matter what the stats or score were, just about having fun.  Both were important though.

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I would argue that children do indeed work, and what they`re doing is what adults call play. There`s a difference between "play" and "recreation." But a child is working much harder than most adults, because they`re having to not only grow their body, they`re also growing their brain. You may know that a child is born with a very large number more of synapses, which then reduce down over the first six years to the normal human brain.

All those extra synapses are there because the child is having to learn to move, see, interpret, speak, and think. They`re working constantly, trying to figure out how the world works. Play, for a child, is just trial-and-error, hoping to figure out how to function in an increasingly complex world.

But recreation isn`t the same thing, is it. Hunter-gatherers may not have called what they did to survive "work," but it`s still work...I think? However, I do like the connection between work and progress, and passive "taking" from the environment rather than modifying that environment.

I also think that the reason adults look at children and call their activities play is because it`s a more natural way to learn---the analog process, trial-and-error. If you think about it, when we`re learning our hobbies and recreational things, we`re doing it casually, trying things to see if they succeed. If they don`t, there`s no real penalty enforced by anyone other than our own expectations. So too with children`s play.

Work only becomes penalized when we`re exerting our efforts on behalf of someone else. Right?

It seems to me there is work, and then there`s WORK.

Work is doing what you love and getting paid for it.

WORK is doing what you don`t love and getting paid for it.

And that is as far as my brain is going today! Maybe by spring I`ll have some more deep thoughts for Craig`s insightful questions!



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KevDev,
The problem with differentiating two meanings by capitalizing one version of the word is that it leads to major confusion. There`s money, then there`s MONEY! There`s reality, then there`s the REAL reality!

If we can`t use separate words with separate definitions, then we can`t have clear definitions. And if we don`t have that clarity and certainty in our mind, we usually can`t act with any confidence.

Yes, I "know what`cha mean" when you say there`s "work" then there`s WORK! But suppose I`m wrong? What if my interpretation of your thoughts is radically different than what you meant?

Since work is such an important part of everyday life, I think it would benefit everyone to know *exactly* what they mean with the word. How many younger people these days have no "work ethic?" We hear about that all the time. But if we don`t know what anyone means by "work," or whether it`s the capitalized or lowercase version, do we even know what "work ethic" means? I don`t think so.