The Power of Fun: Why fun is the key to a happy and healthy life

by Catherine Price

The basic idea is to use the concept of “friction” to make it harder to fall into the habits you’re trying to change, and easier to engage in the ones you’re trying to establish. Friction is a term often used by Silicon Valley types to refer to any sort of impediment that might make it incrementally harder or less convenient to interact with their products. For example, unlocking your phone used to require you to actually type in a code. Then came fingerprint readers, and then facial recognition. Each of these steps reduced friction. Now, instead of having to consciously think, “I want to check my phone,” and physically type in a series of numbers, all you need to do to activate your phone is to look at it.