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Comment by gwervc

6 hours ago

Researcher here: yes it's playing. And playing isn't a bad thing. If we hadn't fun, a lot of us would have quit already.

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gwervc

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eesmith  5 hours ago

Sure. In my 20s I remember telling my boss that I had so much fun programming that I would do it even if I wasn't paid. (That was probably a mistake, but at least it was a state job with salary guidelines.)

But having fun and playing as part of work is doesn't mean I was "playing programmer." Even had I been an unpaid trust-fund baby.

What does "play Viking" mean to you, and how do we know that's what this researcher is doing?

Would you also say that he "plays sailor", given that he's an actual sailor?

Should we say the people building the 13th- century style castle at Guédelon are playing serfdom?

Those trying to rediscover ancient building techniques are playing Egyptians, Romans, Eastern Islanders, Incans, etc.?

Was Thor Heyerdahl was "playing a 'Tiki person'" in his famous raft voyage, when that culture doesn't exist, or was he trying to demonstrate that the raft hypothesis for human migration could not simply be rejected as impossible?

  • Henchman21  5 hours ago

    I think you’re the only person in this thread who took “play” as dismissive. This tells us a bit about you but not much else.

    • eesmith  2 hours ago

      No, I didn't say "play" was dismissive.

      I said that describing the researcher's work as "play Viking", done as a way to monetize one's PhD, is dismissive.

      The more so as the researcher was partially self-funded, and didn't have a PhD.

      I don't think it's right to characterize everyone doing experimental archeology about Norse practices as "playing Viking", nor to only pick out those studying shipping routes.

      The same for other fields - I wouldn't say that people researching how the ancient Romans made concrete are "playing Romans".

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