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I think I broke up with the New York Times Games app last week. It wasn't them, it was me. I just needed some space. I wanted something new, something looser.

The "smart" part of my brain said: "Well, hopefully, the New York Times hires a new game designer soon."

The "dumb" part of my brain said: "Why don't you just make it yourself?"

And immediately, the Imposter Syndrome sirens went off. I am not a game developer. I do not have a product roadmap. I do not have a Q4 strategy.

But I did it anyway. I spent hours building a little word association game just because I wanted to play it.

It’s called Linkle.

The tagline is "One dumb thing leads another." It’s messy, it’s intuitive, and it exists solely because I got tired of waiting for permission to have fun.

And it turns out, there is a scientific reason why doing this "dumb" thing felt so good.

In evolutionary biology, there is a concept called Neoteny.

It refers to the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood. In animals, this usually means looking cute (like a dog that still looks like a puppy). But in humans, neoteny is cognitive. It’s the ability to remain curious, playful, and plastic long after we are "supposed" to settle down and be serious.

"Smart" adulthood tells us to specialize. To only do things we are experts at.

Neoteny tells us to play with things we don't understand yet.

Stewart Butterfield didn't set out to build enterprise communication software. He and his team (Tiny Speck) were trying to build a weird, playful online game called Glitch. They failed at the game. But the little internal chat tool they hacked together to talk to each other while they failed?

That became Slack.

The "dumb" side project was worth billions. The "smart" business plan didn't exist.

If they had waited until they were "experts" in enterprise software, they never would have started. They just wanted to play.

We live in an era of optimization. Every hobby is a side hustle. Every decision is data-driven.

But magic rarely comes from optimization. It comes from agency.

When you consume (Netflix, NYT Games, TikTok), you are passive. When you create, even if it’s just a silly game, you are active.

I built Linkle not to disrupt the gaming industry, but to disrupt my own boredom. And I want you to play it for the same reason.

Bricolage (bree-kuh-LAHZH) — Construction or creation from a diverse range of available things. The act of tinkering with whatever is at hand.

The vibe: "I don't have the right tools, but I have some duct tape, a dream, and a free afternoon."

Used in a sentence: "Instead of taking a course on game design, Gerald engaged in some aggressive bricolage and accidentally built a viral hit."

I want you to do two things today.

1. Go waste some time on Linkle. It’s free. It’s fun. It’s the product of pure, unadulterated creative boredom. 👉 Play Linkle Here

2. Audit your "Waiting Room." What is the project you are waiting to start until you are "ready"? Until you have the degree? Until you have the funding?

The secret is: You will never be ready. You will only be bored.

So be a neotenic, bricolage-loving dumdum. Go make the thing.