Playcore, lying at the heart of creativity

Human creativity, that serious stuff, is built on the least serious of foundations: play. Strip away the jargon of innovation labs, the solemnity of TED talks and the furrowed brows of venture capitalists, and what remains is the same impulse that drives toddlers to stack blocks, and comedians to deliver punchlines. Playfulness isn't a distraction from creativity but its beating heart. The best innovators are players. They may wear suits, gather patents or Nobel Prizes. But underneath, they are children with expensive toys. Thomas Edison tinkered like a boy with a chemistry set. Picasso doodled like a prankster with a spray can. Even Einstein admitted his theory of relativity was born of 'thought experiments' - a fancy way of saying he played with ideas until they popped up proper.

Play comes in two flavours: frivolous and serious. Frivolous play invents Monopoly, Insta reels and government policy in the form of alliterations. Serious play invents vaccines, space travel and nation states. Without frivolity, creativity becomes sterile, ritualistic, dogmatic. Without seriousness, it can't move beyond silly-hood. Together, they produce the kind of breakthroughs that make life richer, stranger and, yes, profitable. Many innovators deny they are playing. They prefer to call it 'research', 'business' or 'disruption'. But who are they kidding?