Por favor lee la siguiente nota periodística, donde el autor introduce

una clasificación muy interesante que podemos aplicar a este curso de

Liderazgo.

What is ‘Type II fun,’ and why do some people want to have it?

By Erin Strout

The Washington Post

March 24, 2022

It was approaching sunset on a mid-February Saturday in the mountains of Flagstaff,

Ariz. A couple hundred people were at the base of the local ski resort, ready to race —
not downhill, but up the slope, sans chairlift, either on skis or with micro-spikes strapped
to their running shoes. They would ascend 2,200 vertical feet before they slid or
clomped the whole way back down to the finish line, where beers and snacks would
await their arrival.

A human-powered trip up a ski slope might not sound pleasant to everyone, but to many
of the participants it was a very particular kind of fun: Type II fun.

This is a reference to a “Fun Scale” is often used by outdoor enthusiasts and endurance
junkies to describe the kind of enjoyment they get from their adventures or
misadventures, as the case may be. Type II fun can feel terrible while you’re doing it,
like climbing up a mountain on a cold winter’s night or running a 100-mile race, but
when it’s over, your memory erases the miserable parts and you would do it again — for
fun, of course.

“It’s exhilarating to be outside; it’s beautiful, it’s a community event,” said Shea Tinder, a
licensed massage therapist who ran with her three young daughters in the shorter kid-
friendly course and was one of many participants who described the event as Type II
fun. (She also classified her family’s recent trip to Disneyland as Type II fun: waiting in
lines with three overtired and overstimulated kids, which results in sharing their sense of
thrill, awe and wonder on Space Mountain).

On this scale, Type I fun is an activity you’re sure you’ll enjoy, and you do. Think:
sharing a nice meal with friends, going to the beach or a chill day of downhill skiing
(using the chairlift, like normal people). Type III fun? It’s actually not fun at all. It’s often
described as “harrowing,” like getting dangerously lost in the wilderness or trying to
swim across the Atlantic. It often involves search-and-rescue, prayers and vows that
you’ll never do it again.

But Type II fun? That’s the sweet spot. It challenges you without putting you in danger
— and it’s often uncomfortable but in ways that also make you feel alive.

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Are ice-cold showers good for you? I tried it for two months.

Courtney Dauwalter, a 37-year-old decorated ultramarathoner from Golden, Colo., lives

by the fun scale. Whether she’s hallucinating in the middle of a 200-mile race or
attempting to clock her best time washing the dishes, it’s all fun. Even in August 2020,
when she set out to run the fastest known time traversing the 490-mile Colorado Trail
and ended up in the hospital with bronchitis 309 miles in, she still insists it was a
pleasure.

“I loved it a lot,” Dauwalter said. “I ended up having to stop for health reasons, and that
wasn’t ideal, but it didn’t push it into Type III fun for me because I had a great support
system around me who called it before it actually became Type III. The people around
me were able to make some good judgment calls to keep me safe and make sure I’m
able to try this again in the future.”

According to “Climbing Dictionary: Mountaineering Slang, Terms, Neologisms & Lingo,”

the scale was coined in 1985 by Rainer Newberry, a geology professor at the University
of Alaska. He told climber/geologist Peter Haeussler about it, and Haeussler introduced
the concept to climber/writer Kelly Cordes, who put it online in a couple of blog posts.

The first time Matt Samet, author of the “Climbing Dictionary,” heard of Type II fun was
about 15 years ago, while editing a piece by Cordes at Climbing magazine. Now it’s a
common term among most climbers.

Type II Fun has become part of the lingo for outdoor enthusiasts. This sticker pack is
sold by Dynamite Starfish on Etsy. (Dynamite Starfish)

“It’s just something that’s understood. Like if you say, ‘Yeah, that’s a great route, but it’s
Type II fun,’ people immediately know what you’re talking about,” Samet said. “It helps
you converse with other climbers or whatever community you’re in. You can build a
bond that way.”

It may have originated with rock climbers, but the scale has taken on a life of its own.
There are even T-shirts and stickers that promote Type II fun. The product description
for a Type II T-shirt available on Amazon reads: “There’s three types of outdoor fun, and
type 2 is the best. It’s worth telling stories afterwards, and it didn’t kill you.”

But although it’s firmly entrenched in the vocabulary of outdoor adventurers,

researchers who study fun don’t put much stock in the scale.

“It’s almost as valid as me … coming up with a theory of dogs,” said Travis Tae Oh, an
assistant professor of marketing at Yeshiva University, whose studies include the
consumer psychology of fun. “There may be some truth to it, but I would not really use
this as any scientific validity or anything like that.”

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Oh’s research defines fun based on two psychological components: hedonic
engagement (immersing yourself in an activity for pure enjoyment); and a sense of
liberation (temporarily freeing yourself of concerns like work stress or parenting
problems or dying in the ocean). A vacation free of pandemic-related worries after a
long period of intense work would count, as would a night on the dance floor with good
friends. But calling an experience “fun” only in retrospect wouldn’t, Oh said.

“To my theory, if the experience allowed you to liberate or feel a sense of liberation from
something that was holding you back or you felt some sense of freedom, then you might
evaluate that experience as fun,” Oh said.

To be sure, fun by anyone’s definition has been hard to come by during the pandemic.
In fact, our concept of fun has probably shifted altogether as we drift into the third year
of coping with the coronavirus. “In order to feel free, you have to feel carefree, and it’s
been an environment that it’s been difficult, especially for parents or people who have
older family members, people who are constantly worried about whether what they’re
doing is ‘right,’ ” Oh said.

Michael Rucker, an organizational psychologist and author of “The Fun Habit” (coming
in 2023), has also researched fun. Rucker’s definition of fun can be any activity that’s a
pleasurable experience (delightful or exciting, as well as relaxing or calm). He has
developed his own “Fun Type” calculator. While he agrees that the “Fun Scale” is not
scientifically sound, he buys that some Type II varieties probably qualify as fun,
although he would call them “hard fun.” He puts writing a book in that category, too.

Fun can be something that “challenges the things we believe or connects us to

something bigger — gets us out of our heads so that our micro-problems feel smaller,”
Rucker said. “But I think Type III is where I would diverge. I call that agonizing, and I
don’t know why you would want to engage in Type III fun.”

Even Dauwalter, as extreme as her version of fun may seem to most people, agrees
that Type III fun should be off the table. And she is steadfast that the mountain peaks
she bags and the pain caves she puts herself in are all a delight. Otherwise she
wouldn’t do them.

“Mindset is really important, and in those moments, I try to remember that I chose it and
I get to do it, as opposed to having to do it,” Dauwalter said. “Just that switch of words
alone can change the whole story.”

Erin Strout is a freelance writer in Flagstaff, Ariz. Follow her on Twitter @erinstrout.

Mi intención contigo es que, este curso de Liderazgo que estás

comenzando, lo asumas tú como ‘FUN TYPE II’ para ti, es decir, que lo
asumas como un reto muy arduo, y ‘le entres con todo’…

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 • En el ‘FUN TYPE I’ mi responsabilidad como profesor sería
entretenerte, como si vieras una película o un partido de futbol.
En este caso, tu participación es pasiva, y no requiere gran
esfuerzo de tu parte. No es ésta mi intención… Y para este tipo de
‘FUN’ desde luego hay mejores opciones que este curso.

• En contraste, en el ‘FUN TYPE II’ que espero asumas para ti con

este curso de Liderazgo, mi responsabilidad como profesor es
acompañarte provocando que tú descubras los aprendizajes
personalizados que en este momento de tu vida tú requieras
descubrir para ti, y que son exclusivos para ti. Ello no es
evidente, requiere de gran esfuerzo de tu parte y dedicación
mucho más allá de lo fácil, rápido y superficial. Este curso de
Liderazgo resulta un reto especialmente arduo para ti, de tal
manera que lograr ‘llegar a la meta’ constituye enorme logro
personal.

Confío puedas ver este curso de Liderazgo como el enorme reto que es, y
asumirlo como ‘FUN TYPE II’. Si tú consideras que entonces ello NO sea
conveniente para ti en este momento, entonces te invito a que de
inmediato, sin consecuencias académicas, des de baja la materia. Ello
tiene que ocurrir antes del inicio de la clase 2. A partir de la clase 2,
este curso se vuelve obligatorio para ti, y si no lo asumes como ‘FUN
TYPE II’, entonces involuntariamente resultará, para ti, como ‘FUN
TYPE III’. Y créeme, en tal caso no deseas vivir ese martirio. (De hecho,
me pregunto cómo puede el autor de esta clasificación definir el TYPE
III como ‘FUN’, cuando lo describe como algo indeseable y aborrecible…).

Bueno, pues ya sabes… y no olvides nuestro lema:

¡NO pierdas NUNCA la

ELEGANCIA!
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