Middle Years 

Types of Fun

With the Year 9 Girls currently away on their Mittagundi Experience, I’m reminded about the three different types of “Fun.” In the Outdoor Industry it is often referred to as the fun scale. Apparently, the scale was initially devised in 1985 by Rainer Newberry, a geology professor at the University of Alaska, but has since been used by people working (and playing) in the Outdoor Industry as a way of describing outdoor adventures/misadventures. The scale is split into three categories of “fun.”

Type 1 fun is enjoyable while it’s happening. Also known as, simply, fun. But the bad news about type 1 fun is that after the fun ends, you are unlikely to remember it, it’s easily forgotten. 

Type 2 fun is miserable or unpleasant while it’s happening, but fun in retrospect. It usually begins with the best intentions, and then things don’t go according to plan. It builds character and the further in the past the memory becomes, the more fondly you recount it.

Type 3 fun is not fun at all. Not even in retrospect. You certainly don’t forget the experience, but you wish you could!

I know for the Year 9 Boys, for many, Mittagundi was type 2 fun – it was unpleasant at times, but they couldn’t stop talking about it once home. I’m sure the girls are having a similar experience.  

The experience of learning is also “fun.” Learning something new is quite frustrating and feels unpleasant, but after the new skills/knowledge have been learned it feels nice and pleasant and is often memorable. This is another example of Type 2 fun.

After all: It doesn’t have to be “fun” to be fun. I’m a big fan of type 2 fun.

Ben Hawthorne

Head of Middle Years