Rochelle left a comment on one of my entries that I think is important enough to bring up and highlight:
[P]eople are scared to try things. They’re always afraid of breaking something by clicking the wrong thing. I think it’s part embarrassment and part shame. That lack of playfulness hurts people too.
This is totally spot on. We need to change people’s mindsets to make them comfortable fooling around, making things, breaking things, and playing on the web.
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That is totally spot-on, and extends into so many things in life from using software to cooking to home improvement, even to gardening.
I don’t think you can change most people’s mindsets significantly — not on less than multi-year timescales. I think you *can* get them to re-categorize things…
The thing that makes people comfortable playing, at the start at least, is having somewhere to turn to, knowing that there’s someone to go to if everything goes horribly wrong. In my work I’ve made it my top priority exactly because it results in changing people’s mindsets. I don’t focus on the 15 things they have to know how to do, I focus on them knowing that I consider it my job to be at the other end of them phone/email/table for them, whenever they need me. The stuff you can do once someone feels that someone else has their back is honestly amazing.
more play the better…..i agree…..
yep change people’s mindsets…exemplify……model playfulness – lightheartedness – carefreeness…. and all the other juicy words associated with playfulness