-
Play Anything
- The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Life is boring: filled with meetings and traffic, errands and emails. Nothing we'd ever call fun. But what if we've gotten fun wrong? In Play Anything, visionary game designer and philosopher Ian Bogost shows how we can overcome our daily anxiety; transforming the boring, ordinary world around us into one of endless, playful possibilities. The key to this playful mindset lies in discovering the secret truth of fun and games.
Play Anything reveals that games appeal to us not because they are fun, but because they set limitations. Soccer wouldn't be soccer if it wasn't composed of two teams of 11 players using only their feet, heads, and torsos to get a ball into a goal; Tetris wouldn't be Tetris without falling pieces in characteristic shapes. Such rules seem needless, arbitrary, and difficult. Yet it is the limitations that make games enjoyable, just like it's the hard things in life that give it meaning.
Play is what happens when we accept these limitations, narrow our focus, and, consequently, have fun. Which is also how to live a good life. Manipulating a soccer ball into a goal is no different than treating ordinary circumstances - like grocery shopping, lawn mowing, and making PowerPoints - as sources for meaning and joy. We can "play anything" by filling our days with attention and discipline, devotion and love for the world as it really is, beyond our desires and fears. Ranging from Internet culture to moral philosophy, ancient poetry to modern consumerism, Bogost shows us how today's chaotic world can only be tamed - and enjoyed - when we first impose boundaries on ourselves.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Indistractable
- How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
- By: Nir Eyal, Julie Li
- Narrated by: Nir Eyal
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Indistractable, Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving us to distraction. He describes why solving the problem is not as simple as swearing off our devices: Abstinence is impractical and often makes us want more. Eyal lays bare the secret of finally doing what you say you will do with a four-step, research-backed model. Indistractable reveals the key to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of us.
-
-
Nothing new...
- By Erica on 12-24-19
By: Nir Eyal, and others
-
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
- By: Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover
- Narrated by: Nir Eyal
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do some products capture our attention, while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us? This audiobook introduces listeners to the "Hooked Model", a four-step process companies use to build customer habits. Through consecutive cycles through the hook, successful products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back repeatedly - without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.
-
-
Great book, wish the narration was a little better.
- By Todays The Best Day - Dani Davis on 07-21-15
By: Nir Eyal, and others
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
Smart Brevity
- The Power of Saying More with Less
- By: Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz
- Narrated by: Mark Chamberlin
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity—think Strunk and White’s Elements of Style for the digital age.
-
-
Should've been more brief
- By Voldi Way on 10-18-22
By: Jim VandeHei, and others
-
Make It Stick
- The Science of Successful Learning
- By: Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To most of us, learning something 'the hard way' implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head and will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.
-
-
FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO KNOW HOW TO LEARN
- By ANDRÉ on 11-22-14
By: Peter C. Brown, and others
-
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution
- A Handbook for Entrepreneurs
- By: Uri Levine
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the cofounder of Waze—the world's leading commuting and navigation app with more than 700 million users to date, and which Google acquired in 2013 for $1.15 billion—Levine is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that other founders, managers, and employees in the tech space can build their own highly valued companies. Levine offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and his second unicorn, Moovit, revealing the formula that drove those companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike.
-
-
Ok but not great
- By Didier Vallauri on 01-30-23
By: Uri Levine
-
Indistractable
- How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
- By: Nir Eyal, Julie Li
- Narrated by: Nir Eyal
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Indistractable, Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving us to distraction. He describes why solving the problem is not as simple as swearing off our devices: Abstinence is impractical and often makes us want more. Eyal lays bare the secret of finally doing what you say you will do with a four-step, research-backed model. Indistractable reveals the key to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of us.
-
-
Nothing new...
- By Erica on 12-24-19
By: Nir Eyal, and others
-
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
- By: Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover
- Narrated by: Nir Eyal
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do some products capture our attention, while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us? This audiobook introduces listeners to the "Hooked Model", a four-step process companies use to build customer habits. Through consecutive cycles through the hook, successful products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back repeatedly - without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.
-
-
Great book, wish the narration was a little better.
- By Todays The Best Day - Dani Davis on 07-21-15
By: Nir Eyal, and others
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
Smart Brevity
- The Power of Saying More with Less
- By: Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz
- Narrated by: Mark Chamberlin
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity—think Strunk and White’s Elements of Style for the digital age.
-
-
Should've been more brief
- By Voldi Way on 10-18-22
By: Jim VandeHei, and others
-
Make It Stick
- The Science of Successful Learning
- By: Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To most of us, learning something 'the hard way' implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head and will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.
-
-
FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO KNOW HOW TO LEARN
- By ANDRÉ on 11-22-14
By: Peter C. Brown, and others
-
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution
- A Handbook for Entrepreneurs
- By: Uri Levine
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the cofounder of Waze—the world's leading commuting and navigation app with more than 700 million users to date, and which Google acquired in 2013 for $1.15 billion—Levine is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that other founders, managers, and employees in the tech space can build their own highly valued companies. Levine offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and his second unicorn, Moovit, revealing the formula that drove those companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike.
-
-
Ok but not great
- By Didier Vallauri on 01-30-23
By: Uri Levine
-
The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
- Your Journey to Mastery
- By: David Thomas, Andrew Hunt
- Narrated by: Anna Katarina
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt wrote the first edition of this influential book in 1999 to help their clients create better software and rediscover the joy of coding. These lessons have helped a generation of programmers examine the very essence of software development. Now, 20 years later, this new edition re-examines what it means to be a modern programmer. Topics range from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse.
-
-
An excellent and entertaining technical book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-21-20
By: David Thomas, and others
-
Video Game Storytelling
- What Every Developer Needs to Know About Narrative Techniques
- By: Evan Skolnick
- Narrated by: D.G. Chichester
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With increasingly sophisticated video games being consumed by an enthusiastic and expanding audience, the pressure is on game developers like never before to deliver exciting stories and engaging characters. With Video Game Storytelling, game writer and producer Evan Skolnick provides a comprehensive yet easy-to-follow guide to storytelling basics and how they can be applied at every stage of the development process - by all members of the team.
-
-
Nice but shallow
- By Amazon Customer on 01-14-22
By: Evan Skolnick
-
Play
- How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
- By: Stuart Brown, Christopher Vaughan MD
- Narrated by: Michael Hinton
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We've all seen the happiness on the face of a child while playing in the school yard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless, all-consuming, and fun. But as Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates, play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. We are designed by nature to flourish through play.
-
-
Message and content great, professional reader too serious for a book called Play!
- By Sara B aka Mommy on 10-26-17
By: Stuart Brown, and others
-
How Emotions Are Made
- The Secret Life of the Brain
- By: Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose research overturns the long-standing belief that emotions are automatic, universal, and hardwired in different brain regions. Instead, Barrett shows, we construct each instance of emotion through a unique interplay of brain, body, and culture.
-
-
Emotions are not things!!!!!!
- By Gary on 03-14-17
-
Fair Play
- A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) (Reese's Book Club)
- By: Eve Rodsky
- Narrated by: Eve Rodsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fair Play is a time- and anxiety-saving system that offers couples a completely new way to divvy up chores and responsibilities. Rodsky interviewed more than 500 men and women from all walks of life to figure out what the invisible work in a family actually entails and how to get it all done efficiently. With four easy-to-follow rules, 100 household tasks, and a series of conversation starters for you and your partner, Fair Play helps you prioritize what's important to your family and who should take the lead on every chore from laundry to homework to dinner.
-
-
For Coupled People
- By Brandy Patrick on 10-02-19
By: Eve Rodsky
-
You're Not Listening
- What You're Missing and Why It Matters
- By: Kate Murphy
- Narrated by: Kate Murphy
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At work, we’re taught to lead the conversation. On social media, we shape our personal narratives. At parties, we talk over one another. So do our politicians. We’re not listening. And no one is listening to us. Despite living in a world where technology allows constant digital communication and opportunities to connect, it seems no one is really listening or even knows how. And it’s making us lonelier, more isolated, and less tolerant than ever before. A listener by trade, New York Times contributor Kate Murphy wanted to know how we got here.
-
-
Very Interesting and Helpful
- By Bike49038 on 02-17-20
By: Kate Murphy
-
Strategy
- A History
- By: Lawrence Freedman
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 32 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives.
-
-
Comprehensive 'Tour de Force' on Strategy
- By Logical Paradox on 07-20-14
-
SuperBetter
- A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient - Powered by the Science of Games
- By: Jane McGonigal
- Narrated by: Jane McGonigal
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An innovative guide to living gamefully, based on the program that has already helped nearly half a million people achieve remarkable personal growth. In 2009, internationally renowned game designer Jane McGonigal suffered a severe concussion. Unable to think clearly or work or even get out of bed, she became anxious and depressed, even suicidal. But rather than let herself sink further, she decided to get better by doing what she does best: She turned her recovery process into a resilience-building game.
-
-
Fantastic book, not the ideal medium
- By Kaye Marie on 07-14-16
By: Jane McGonigal
-
A Whole New Mind
- Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
- By: Daniel H. Pink
- Narrated by: Daniel H. Pink
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lawyers. Accountants. Software Engineers. That what Mom and Dad encouraged us to become. They were wrong. Gone is the age of "left-brain" dominance. The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers - creative and emphatic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't.
-
-
A waste of a good credit
- By Lonnie on 11-07-08
By: Daniel H. Pink
-
Art & Fear
- Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
- By: David Bayles, Ted Orland
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. This is a book about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. It is about committing your future to your own hands, placing free will above predestination, choice above chance. It is about finding your own work.
-
-
Amazing!
- By zozobraswife on 05-10-12
By: David Bayles, and others
-
In Emergency, Break Glass
- What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World
- By: Nate Anderson
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who has not found themselves scrolling endlessly on screens and wondered: Am I living or distracting myself from living? In Emergency, Break Glass adapts Friedrich Nietzsche’s passionate quest for meaning into a world overwhelmed by “content.” Written long before the advent of smartphones, Nietzsche’s aphoristic philosophy advocated a fierce mastery of attention, a strict information diet, and a powerful connection to the natural world.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Tyson on 06-12-22
By: Nate Anderson
-
Happy
- Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine
- By: Derren Brown
- Narrated by: Derren Brown
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Happy Derren Brown explores changing concepts of happiness - from the surprisingly modern wisdom of the Stoics and Epicureans in classical times right up until today, when the self-help industry has attempted to claim happiness as its own. He shows how many of self-help’s suggested routes to happiness and success – such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals – can be disastrous to follow and, indeed, actually cause anxiety. Happy aims to reclaim happiness and to enable us to appreciate the good things in life, in all their transient glory.
-
-
A witty and thoughtful take on stoicism
- By Sam Russell on 04-07-19
By: Derren Brown
Related to this topic
-
The Laws of Simplicity
- Design, Technology, Business, Life
- By: John Maeda
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We’re rebelling against technology that’s too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte “read me” manuals. The iPod’s clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that’s simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do.
-
-
Get past the start and be impressed
- By Alex Z on 12-11-17
By: John Maeda
-
In Pursuit of Elegance
- Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing
- By: Matthew E. May
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this thought-provoking exploration, Matthew May defines elegance as the elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power, and pinpoints the four key elements that characterize it: seduction, subtraction, symmetry, and sustainability. In a story-driven narrative that sheds light on the need for elegance in design, engineering, physics, art, urban planning, sports, and work, May offers a surprising array of stories that illustrate why what's "not there" often matters more than what is.
-
-
I love elegance, but this book isn't elegant
- By Oliver Nielsen on 06-26-11
By: Matthew E. May
-
The Life We're Looking For
- Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World
- By: Andy Crouch
- Narrated by: Andy Crouch
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our greatest need is to be recognized—to be seen, loved, and embedded in rich relationships with those around us. But for the last century, we’ve displaced that need with the ease of technology. We’ve dreamed of mastery without relationship (what the premodern world called magic) and abundance without dependence (what Jesus called Mammon). Yet even before a pandemic disrupted that quest, we felt threatened and strangely out of place: lonely, anxious, bored amid endless options, oddly disconnected amid infinite connections.
-
-
Way too much scripture
- By Lee Nettles on 05-11-22
By: Andy Crouch
-
The News
- A User's Manual
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The news is everywhere. We can’t stop constantly checking it on our computer screens, but what is this doing to our minds? We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton (author of the best-selling The Architecture of Happiness), but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives.
-
-
Quit the news
- By Bett Bollhoefer on 05-16-15
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Spark and the Grind
- Ignite the Power of Disciplined Creativity
- By: Erik Wahl
- Narrated by: Erik Wahl, Tasha Wahl
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Erik Wahl, a visual artist, speaker, and entrepreneur, helps us unite the yin and yang of creativity - the dynamic new ideas with the dogged effort. He shows why we won't get far if we rely on the spark without the grind or the grind without the spark. What the world really needs are the creators who can hold the two in balance. This audiobook offers surprising insights and practical advice about how to fan the sparks and make the grind more productive.
-
-
Worth reading!
- By june d barnard on 06-01-18
By: Erik Wahl
-
The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead
- Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Charles Murray
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....
-
-
Good Book: From one curmudgeon to another
- By DaWoolf on 05-22-14
By: Charles Murray
-
The Laws of Simplicity
- Design, Technology, Business, Life
- By: John Maeda
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We’re rebelling against technology that’s too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte “read me” manuals. The iPod’s clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that’s simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do.
-
-
Get past the start and be impressed
- By Alex Z on 12-11-17
By: John Maeda
-
In Pursuit of Elegance
- Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing
- By: Matthew E. May
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this thought-provoking exploration, Matthew May defines elegance as the elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power, and pinpoints the four key elements that characterize it: seduction, subtraction, symmetry, and sustainability. In a story-driven narrative that sheds light on the need for elegance in design, engineering, physics, art, urban planning, sports, and work, May offers a surprising array of stories that illustrate why what's "not there" often matters more than what is.
-
-
I love elegance, but this book isn't elegant
- By Oliver Nielsen on 06-26-11
By: Matthew E. May
-
The Life We're Looking For
- Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World
- By: Andy Crouch
- Narrated by: Andy Crouch
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our greatest need is to be recognized—to be seen, loved, and embedded in rich relationships with those around us. But for the last century, we’ve displaced that need with the ease of technology. We’ve dreamed of mastery without relationship (what the premodern world called magic) and abundance without dependence (what Jesus called Mammon). Yet even before a pandemic disrupted that quest, we felt threatened and strangely out of place: lonely, anxious, bored amid endless options, oddly disconnected amid infinite connections.
-
-
Way too much scripture
- By Lee Nettles on 05-11-22
By: Andy Crouch
-
The News
- A User's Manual
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The news is everywhere. We can’t stop constantly checking it on our computer screens, but what is this doing to our minds? We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton (author of the best-selling The Architecture of Happiness), but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives.
-
-
Quit the news
- By Bett Bollhoefer on 05-16-15
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Spark and the Grind
- Ignite the Power of Disciplined Creativity
- By: Erik Wahl
- Narrated by: Erik Wahl, Tasha Wahl
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Erik Wahl, a visual artist, speaker, and entrepreneur, helps us unite the yin and yang of creativity - the dynamic new ideas with the dogged effort. He shows why we won't get far if we rely on the spark without the grind or the grind without the spark. What the world really needs are the creators who can hold the two in balance. This audiobook offers surprising insights and practical advice about how to fan the sparks and make the grind more productive.
-
-
Worth reading!
- By june d barnard on 06-01-18
By: Erik Wahl
-
The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead
- Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Charles Murray
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....
-
-
Good Book: From one curmudgeon to another
- By DaWoolf on 05-22-14
By: Charles Murray
-
Bozo Sapiens
- Why to Err Is Human
- By: Michael Kaplan, Ellen Kaplan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our species, it appears, is hardwired to get things wrong in myriad different ways. Why did recipients of a loan offer accept a higher rate of interest when a pretty woman's face was printed on the flyer? Why did one poll on immigration find the most despised aliens were ones from a group that did not exist? What made four of the Air Force's best pilots fly their planes, in formation, straight into the ground?
-
-
A tour de force
- By Ivan on 07-05-11
By: Michael Kaplan, and others
-
Glimmer
- How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World
- By: Warren Berger
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book to reveal how thinking like a designer can help solve the greatest challenges we face in business, society, and our daily lives. What can we learn from the ways great designers think-and how can it improve our world? In this highly original book by journalist Warren Berger, in collaboration with celebrated designer Bruce Mau, ten groundbreaking principles of design are shown in action-addressing business, social, and personal challenges and improving the way we think, work, and live.
-
-
not for those who know about design thinking...
- By Pierre on 09-06-10
By: Warren Berger
-
The Upside of Irrationality
- The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home
- By: Dan Ariely
- Narrated by: Simon Jones
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his groundbreaking book Predictably Irrational, social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, in The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job.
-
-
Not as good as the first
- By Stephen on 06-20-10
By: Dan Ariely
-
Conversations That Matter: Insights & Distinctions - Landmark Essays, Volume 2
- By: Steve Zaffron, Laurel Scheaf, Mark Spirtos, and others
- Narrated by: Gale LeGassick, Steve Zaffron, Laurel Scheaf, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Landmark Essays, Volume 2 continues a wonderful journey to the heart of the matter of our lives, to what matters most. It points out what's possible if we step outside of what we know, and recognize and embrace our capacity to bring forth an entirely new possibility for living—not because it is better, but simply because that is what human beings can do.
-
-
A part of this was worth buying
- By goyo on 12-14-11
By: Steve Zaffron, and others
-
The Plateau Effect
- Getting From Stuck to Success
- By: Bob Sullivan, Hugh Thompson
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Plateau Effect is a powerful law of nature that affects everyone. Learn to identify plateaus and break through any stagnancy in your life - from diet and exercise, to work, to relationships. The Plateau Effect shows how athletes, scientists, therapists, companies, and musicians around the world are learning to break through their plateau - to turn off the forces that cause people to “get used to” things - and turn on human potential and happiness in ways that seemed impossible.
-
-
Heath
- By Oliver Nielsen on 07-22-13
By: Bob Sullivan, and others
-
The Geography of Genius
- A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
- By: Eric Weiner
- Narrated by: Eric Weiner
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Geography of Genius, acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places, like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley, to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity.
-
-
Very, very disappointing
- By Tamara Greer on 06-08-16
By: Eric Weiner
-
Simplicity Parenting
- Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
- By: Kim John Payne, Lisa M. Ross
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From internationally renowned family consultant Kim John Payne comes an eloquent guide that seeks to help parents reclaim for their children the space and freedom that all kids need for their individuality to flourish.
-
-
A worthwhile listen for new parents
- By Kathy K on 07-30-12
By: Kim John Payne, and others
-
Wanting
- The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
- By: Luke Burgis
- Narrated by: Luke Burgis, Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gravity affects every aspect of our physical being, but there’s a psychological force just as powerful - yet almost nobody has heard of it. It’s responsible for bringing groups of people together and pulling them apart, making certain goals attractive to some and not to others, and fueling cycles of anxiety and conflict. In Wanting, Luke Burgis draws on the work of French polymath René Girard to bring this hidden force to light and reveals how it shapes our lives and societies.
-
-
One of the most important books you'll ever read
- By chris boutte on 06-14-21
By: Luke Burgis
-
Program or Be Programmed
- Ten Commands for a Digital Age
- By: Douglas Rushkoff
- Narrated by: Douglas Rushkoff
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 10 chapters, composed of 10 "commands", Rushkoff provides cyber enthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate the digital new universe. In this spirited, accessible poetics of new media, Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping listeners to recognize programming as the new literacy of the digital age - and as a template through which to see beyond social conventions and power structures that have vexed us for centuries.
-
-
Good book, but with some crazy ranting
- By Bjarne on 02-05-15
By: Douglas Rushkoff
-
The Importance of Being Little
- What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
- By: Erika Christakis
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A bold challenge to the conventional wisdom about early childhood, with a pragmatic program to encourage parents and teachers to rethink how and where young children learn best by taking the child's eye view of the learning environment.
-
-
Points out many problems; offers no real solution
- By K. Lynn on 08-06-18
By: Erika Christakis
-
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life
- An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
- By: Russ Roberts
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, Roberts examines Smith’s forgotten masterpiece, and finds a treasure trove of timeless, practical wisdom. Smith’s insights into human nature are just as relevant today as they were 300 years ago. What does it take to be truly happy? Should we pursue fame and fortune or the respect of our friends and family? How can we make the world a better place?
-
-
Hard to distinguish Roberts from Smith in reading
- By Amazing Customer on 03-31-15
By: Russ Roberts
-
You Are Now Less Dumb
- How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself
- By: David McRaney
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You Are Now Less Dumb is grounded in the idea that we all believe ourselves to be objective observers of reality - except we’re not. But that's okay, because our delusions keep us sane. Expanding on this premise, McRaney provides eye-opening analyses of 15 more ways we fool ourselves every day. This smart and highly entertaining audiobook will be wowing listeners for years to come.
-
-
Not a lot of guidance
- By A. Yoshida on 02-08-14
By: David McRaney
What listeners say about Play Anything
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Myree
- 12-23-23
Entertaining Word Choice and Enlightening
I liked how he used different examples - stories and really gave the essence of how he thought about play. Liked The Metaphors and Popular Diction.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hamstav
- 09-09-17
Great book, bad title
I did not find in this book what I was expecting from the title.
It's well written and interesting. I touches briefly on boredom and limits. Much of the time is passed criticizing irony. I would say that irony, instead of play, is the main focus of this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael logal
- 03-17-17
or become a monk
Being satisfied with everything for what it is and what we are may that the joy out of the things that matter and send it out in the darkness only to return to us as something else.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LK
- 04-23-23
Don't bother
This author is pompous, pedantic, and verbose. This book could be about a fourth as long with no substance lost from his repetitive and pretentious writing. The narrator does the author NO FAVORS with his professoresque drone. It's ironic that a book on play could be so boring...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- armod
- 02-14-17
Useless
This book has nothing that pertains to practical application. Talks about hipsters obsessions hints that the ideas discussed might have useful applications but does nothing to explore implementation or utilization.
Just a collection of ponderings about pretentious interests
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chloe's Dad
- 01-21-23
Digital Torture
Ten hours of my life...gone forever. Monotonous, pompous, and convoluted. His endless lists while trying to make the same points over and over. Additionally, the narrator's tonality matched the smugness of the author. He would be better cast as the narrator in an old Looney Tunes cartoon. His applied accents when quoting someone bordered on insulting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathy Novak
- 01-31-17
Convoluted
Would you try another book from Ian Bogost and/or Jonathan Yen?
Not Bogost but Yen was a good narrator
What could Ian Bogost have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
This was very hard to follow in my opinion. I understood the premise that it is the restrictions of things that make it a game, but I felt the examples jumped all over the place.
Have you listened to any of Jonathan Yen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No I have not.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
frustration
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matt
- 03-02-20
Repetitive Philosophy
I had picked up this book thinking I was going to get some new insights into game design, or maybe get some new insights into traversing day to day life in a more optimized way by leveraging that sort of concept. It started off strong where the author describes his daughter sort of making a game out of trip to the mall in a way I think most of us did when we were that age, but never gave much thought to again.
Unfortunately, while he references back to that event several times as an example, the book is mostly just going on and on about his perceptions and philosophical take on things.
This book is actually a philosophical work about the concepts of play and fun, in which the author goes on and on about concepts like irony for hours.
I haven't gone through the whole thing and will be returning it if I can. If the author does get to material along the lines the title suggests, it takes him longer to get there than I am willing to invest time in. I wouldn't really mind if the author had covered this sort of ground, but it just goes on and on. The chapter on irony in particular was an incredibly repetitive slog.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dan F
- 08-18-19
repetitive philosophy. stop after chap. 1
he repeats himself and says the same thing and makes the same point and tells you again. when he is on an errand, his daughter makes a game out of stepping on the cracks in the floor. for him it is an errand; for her it is a game. repeat this a hundred times said in slightly different ways and you have this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 10-08-18
This is not fun.
This book is an exaggeration of definition and observations, it does not provide effective solutions.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful