Play vs Work Test

Shaan Puri's framework for discovering your natural advantages by examining what feels like play to you but work to others.

The core concept

• What you do in your "five to nine" (outside work hours) reveals more about your natural strengths than your nine-to-five job
• Look for activities where you go "beyond what's rational" - spending excessive time on things that seem pointless to others
• The key is finding what feels like play to you but would feel like a grind to others

How to identify your "play vs work" activities

• Ask others for their perspective - People around you often spot your natural inclinations before you do
  • Ask: "What's my superpower? What comes easy to me that's harder for other people?"
  • Ask: "Where do I spend time doing things that feel fun to me but would feel like a grind to you?"
• Look for oddities in your behavior - Things you do that seem weird or excessive to others
  • Reading annual reports at midnight for fun
  • Practicing aim simulation for 4 hours a day instead of just playing the game
  • Spending hours on "random rabbit holes" that nobody assigned you
• Notice what you do without being asked - Activities where "the teacher didn't call on you" but you did it anyway

Real examples from the transcript

• Shaan's business research obsession
  • Reading Nevada casino revenue reports at 11pm-12am for fun
  • Building a "giant library of factoids and stories" through random business deep-dives
  • This seemed useless until podcasting made it extremely valuable
• Shaan's NBA 2K franchise mode
  • Never actually played the games - only managed the franchise
  • Spent hours as GM scouting players, making trades, adjusting concession prices
  • Was literally "practicing being a CEO" since 5th/6th grade
• Shaan's wife's bedazzling
  • Started as "girly thing to do" - bedazzling her phone in high school
  • Leaned into her OCD and artsy-craftsy nature instead of hiding it
  • Got really good at it, started getting celebrity clients, made thousands per month in college
  • Seemed like "useless waste of time" but became profitable

What to do once you identify it

• Don't hide or fix these oddities - They're not broken, they're features
• Ask yourself: "What superpower does this give me? Where does this let me thrive? In what scenario would this be extremely useful or valuable?"
• Find the fit later - You don't need to know immediately how it's useful
  • Shaan had a "giant library" of business knowledge before the podcast existed
  • The skills and knowledge stick with you even when projects fail

Why this matters more than hard work

• Project selection is #1 - What you work on matters far more than how hard you work
• Who you work with is #2 - Your collaborators and environment are critical
• Hard work is maybe 3rd, 4th, or 5th - Along with timing and luck
• Hard work's real value: Developing skills that stick with you even when projects fail
  • Example: Shaan's sushi business failed, but he learned After Effects, iMovie, Photoshop
  • Those skills served him well in Silicon Valley later

The proximity principle

• Being around people doing interesting things in your area of interest helps you see more "blueprints"
• Seeing different lifestyles and activities helps you figure out what you'll actually do
• Proximity lets you follow examples and iterate faster