I've recently taken an interest to a study by Ericsson, Krampfe, and Tesh-Romer entitled 'The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance'. It has me wondering though, why do we as humans work so hard to master things? From psych-motor tasks such as putting a ball through a hoop, to cognitive activities such as strategically moving carved pieces of wood across a checkered playing board, we work hard to dominate and become the best we can at what seem to be ridiculous and arbitrary activities.
Has there been any sort of research or hypothesis as to how these activities began to develop? The best I can figure, an activity such as running, or spear-throwing has clear benefits. Our ability to master and take on these different aspects of 'the hunt' would clearly be of considerable benefit when it came to hunting down our food for survival, and a clan's ability to compete and push their skills further would allow them to more efficiently take down their prey.
Where do you think most of our classical leisure activities had their beginning? I'm looking at both psycho-motor activities such as long-distance running, throwing, archery, swimming, etc. as well as cognitive activities such as debate, war planning, chess (and similar intellectual games), etc.
