My nephew, Spencer, turned six Tuesday. During the call I made to wish him a happy one, I asked, “What’s on your agenda for this big day?”

He paused, as if checking the young boy’s equivalent of a Blackberry. “Mostly play,” he cherubbed before launching into an excited stream-of-thought on his impressive stable of Bionicles.

That brings me to Richard Florida, and his book The Rise of the Creative Class, which I’ve chewed on for a few weeks.

As I consider my career path, I look at goals:

1. “Cool” place to live
2. Proximity to family

3. Ability to shape the way I work
4. Opportunity to grow

5. Nearness to a feasible graduate university (long-term)

Florida calls many of these things emblematic of the creative class.

To that list, I’d also add a career that is “mostly play.” Or, perhaps having self-direction and chances to learn makes work seem like a bike ride, or a carpet war waged with Bionicles.

I’ll have more on Florida, I think, in later posts. Oh, and Tuesday this column also rounded out a calendar year, its first.