#83 Wisdom Gates and Serious Play: Paradox, Care and Discovery with Puzzle-Maker Jasen Robillard

Send a love message Holding Paradox Through Serious Play: Can serious play be a portal to wisdom? This is an episode about puzzles and care. Andrea has a conversation with puzzle maker Jason Robillard (StumpCraft) about how puzzles cultivate new ways of being and seeing, holding paradox by repeatedly joining opposites only to realize they were never quite opposites but mirror-like pieces of a coherent whole. Robillard describes his wooden, laser-cut puzzles built from Canadian fine art, with uniquely drawn organic pieces, symbolic elements, sensory “shock,” and sometimes multiple valid placements that challenge assumptions of a single solution. He connects puzzling to embodied experience, attention, OODA loops, cognitive biases, and navigating complexity through “alternating base camps” and Goldilocks destabilization, the metamodern idea of 'serious play', relating this to career upheavals and identity change. The conversation emphasizes care as community glue and highlights values embedded in his work—curiosity, creativity, integrity, and generosity—plus a resonance with David Whyte’s poem “Start Close In.”00:00 Paradox Through Play02:36 Podcast Intro Puzzles Theme07:54 Meet Jason And His Work09:20 Puzzles Holding Paradox11:38 Designing Artful Wooden Puzzles14:47 Embodied Senses And Touch16:58 Career Shift Into Puzzles23:24 Serious Play And Homo Ludens25:50 Moving Childhood And Safety31:57 Base Camps And Destabilization34:30 Polarity Recipes Beyond Flatland38:47 Designing Paradox Puzzles39:48 Many Solutions Mindset42:54 Puzzles as Conversation47:53 Liminal Times Need Puzzles56:00 Sensemaking and OODA Loops01:00:22 Home Gifts and Community01:03:17 Four Values in Design01:11:29 Start Closer In Practice01:13:39 Care Belonging and Vulnerability01:18:52 Where to Find Jason01:19:57 Closing Poem ReadingStumpCraft Amazing Instagram Photos and Videos of GamesJasen’s writings: Releasing the MuseJasen on LinkedInMetamodern influences: Serious PlayOODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act)Homo LudensJasen Robillard was always a closet creative who long denied the creative muses, focusing instead on a “secure” engineering career until it dried up in 2017. As is often the case, necessity proved to be the mother of invention… In 2016, Jasen started designing and prototyping his whimsical puzzles which were inspired by other wooden laser-cut puzzles he had enjoyed years earlier. He noted a lack of wooden puzzle availability in Canada, as well as a severe lack of deliberate focus on Canadian fine art. After a year of playful prototyping and a clear end to his engineering-focused career, Jasen decided to launch StumpCraft formally in 2017. Since the formal launch, StumpCraft has experienced growth and praise as more and more fans share their love of puzzles with friends and family members.  StumpCraft was also the recipient of the 2021 Made in Alberta Award in Games & Leisure, exposing us to an ever more rapidly expanding fanbase. Full intro and notes here.Care is not the opposite of love. It is the very urge of life. 'Caring for what?' is the primary question. That we have a choice about what we care for and how is what makes us human, but it's quite the challenge and responsibility. Let's help one another handle it.Support the showBuy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea HiottSign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.