What is the difference between your Work and Play?

I like to think that I am part of we.

Let's see...I ain't into rowing boats, so even in a large pond it would not be fun. Even if someone else is rowing it strikes me as un-fun. I remember being at summer camp and the damn row boats. I hated it.

The vacuum cleaner reference reminded me of a Peanuts cartoon, where Linus Van Pelt is playing with the vacuum cleaner. He was having a lot of fun. Of course his sister Lucy once got angry with him after tossing him a rubber band and then seeing he was having fun.
It was her own fault. She gave him the rubber band and told him to have fun with it. She then got mad and said that she didn't mean for him to have that much fun.

Linus taught me that just about anything can be fun...except of course for row boats. What type of sadist invented those things?

As an adult, vacuuming is fun. I enjoy it...maybe I'm not normal.

When I was still working in the standard job, the difference was I had to show up and I had to stay with it for the day. Beyond that, it was a form of play because I enjoyed what I was doing. Between constant connections to all aspects of science and watching a student as they learned, it was completely enjoyable. Even the students that had difficulty grasping the material, were enjoyable as they offered me a challenge, much like a puzzle does.

I did a tiny bit of research on this in my undergrad days in the early 1980's - most of the lottery winners I contacted stayed in their jobs. People liked working - and specifically, liked their jobs, more than I'd expected.

I think it's that whole "work to live"/"live to work" dichotomy. I have a very dear friend who (I think) only eats because it keeps her alive to do her job. I'm someone who has to have symbols of things around at work that remind of why I work - to support the things I like to do away from work. I like a lot of things about my work - lots of challenge/independence/more challenge - but I like my life away from work even more.

People can like doing almost anything they don't have to do for money... The fact of having no choice in the matter is a situation employers find ideal, and employees find everything but ideal...

Very interesting question. But it does depend on what do you see as work, and what do you see as fun, which is entirely subjective. For example, you might have fun in your work, but it's still work - meaning, at the end of the month, you'll get an economic reward for your effort.

In terms of "fun", the reward that you get is maybe, a sense of accomplishment due to finishing a difficult/challenging task, such as playing a sport. But what happens when you work as a professional sports player? The lines are very blurry.

However, in terms of children, I do believe it is wise to let them know that facing their responsibilities head strong will allow them to have fun in the long term. Also, making chores fun, ends up being very beneficial in a long term view, for example; I've always liked sweeping the floor. And it is because of my grandma, just because of a phrase when I was little: "If you're doing something, do it good, because no matter how small do you think something is, maybe there's people out there living off of it."

Noel coward said, "Work is more fun than fun". I guess it depends on the kind of work you are doing.

So it's work only if you get an economic reward?

What if you love running or swimming? Your health is good in large part because of that, you don't go to doctors often, don't need medications, never been to the hospital.

Isn't that an economic reward?