Four Square Gets Serious in Silicon Valley

The latest craze to take root in Silicon Valley doesn’t involve codes or algorithms, just squares. That is, four squares, taped onto a carpet, or painted onto asphalt, for the classic elementary school game of four square. The game requires four players to hit a rubber ball back and forth with their hands. Played competitively, it can be brutal: sprained ankles, rug burns, skinned knees, back injuries.

The game’s openness, creativity, and flexibility reinforce attributes prized in the Valley, author and enthusiast Christopher Noxon tells the San Francisco Chronicle. He says it's also being played ferociously at colleges around the country that foster what he calls “rejuveniles”—a term he invented for adults who cling to some qualities of adolescence. (More Silicon Valley stories.)