<commit_before>---
title: Is frivolity the mother of invention?
date: 2016-12-20 00:08:00 -05:00
---

Recently Slate interviewed one of our favorite writers, <NAME>, Author of Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World, about "the things that people did, for no other reason other than the fact that they were fun"

His thesis is that "seemingly trivial pursuits" have largely shaped our world, not "the quest for power, nationalism, or religious beliefs", as is normally assumed. <commit_msg>Updated Is Frivolity The Mother Of Invention<commit_after>---
title: Is frivolity the mother of invention?
date: 2016-12-20 00:08:00 -05:00
---

Recently [Slate interviewed one of our favorite writers, <NAME>](http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/gist/2016/12/author_steven_johnson_on_the_role_of_delight_in_society_s_progress.html), Author of [Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CZCW2PQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1), about "the things that people did, for no other reason other than the fact that they were fun"

His thesis is that "seemingly trivial pursuits" have largely shaped our world, not "the quest for power, nationalism, or religious beliefs", as is normally assumed. 

Another way he puts it is the "pursuit of things we want, not the things we need" move the world. 

Examples cited in the interview are: 

1. the taste for spices created the trade and exploration routes that created the modern economy. 
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