The power of play: Why academia needs creativity to unlock new ideas
Why Academia Overlooks Creativity (and Why We Need More Play)
Creativity gets short shrift in academia because it carries a light, playful energy—quite the opposite of the heavy, dense weight of facts, charts, research, and those thick, dusty books that have sat in the library for a hundred years.
Don’t get me wrong—I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and I love research. There’s definitely a time and place for diving deep into facts and data. But every now and then, I think most of us crave something more—a chance to step out of what we know and into the unknown.
And that’s where play comes in.
Play is powerful because it moves us beyond the limits of what we think is possible. It opens up space for curiosity to thrive, for us to create in the moment, and for new ideas to emerge— ideas that facts and data alone may never reveal.
Sometimes, the key to discovery isn’t more analysis—it’s more play.
