“Hard Fun” is a term first introduced by computer scientist and educator Seymour Papert to describe something that is both challenging and enjoyable.
Videogames are a perfect example of this. In order to be fun, they HAVE to be challenging.
Papert noticed that kids, in particular, actually prefer it when things get harder — and wrote often about his dissatisfaction with an educational system that tried to “make learning easier” for kids.
We do this with our work, too. People are constantly searching for ways to make their work easier — but then it risks getting boring. Perhaps we should be looking, instead, for ways to make it harder.
The easiest (see, there I go again) way to make our work harder (and therefore more challenging and more fun) is to raise our bar.
Don’t just set goals; set big hairy audacious goals (BHAGs). The kind that we may or may not reach. Bigger than most people feel comfortable with.
Then put the "hard fun" in to try make them a reality.
It’s very possible we won’t reach these goals, sure. But we'll definitely impress ourselves along the way.
An ambitious goal forces us to develop different strategies and put in different levels of effort. It forces us to learn and build our skills in new ways.
Ambitious goals also virtually guarantee there will be small failures on the journey.
If we could "beat the boss" in a videogame on the first try, it would be a lame game. What makes it fun is precisely that it takes so many trials and failures to reach success.
To have fun working towards ambitious goals, we have to be okay with not being successful on the first try (or first ten tries, even).
“Hard Fun” activities only stay fun when we feel safe to experiment and try new things.
The setbacks help us learn and improve — and are the reason WHY we’ll ultimately be successful. It’s impossible to get there otherwise.
If we could solve the problem effortlessly and with 100% guarantee of success, then it wouldn’t be fun at all.
Aren’t human beings weird?
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🤔 Thoughts? Do you have more fun trying to reach ambitious goals, or easy-to-achieve goals that anyone could do?