Know the Flow
I attended a lecture last night on the topic of happiness. If you've delved into the subject before, there are rooms full of books on the topic.
I've always been interested in "flow" experiences, and they are difficult to come by. A friend of mine gets into Flow using Photoshop. I can get into them with music, although they are very brief, and are easily interrupted, not by the Internet, but by the process of craft.
Craft always presents problems, unless what you're doing is routine, in which case boredom would be a factor. Routines may seem like flows but they have open doors to distraction. Driving is a routine, so people think they can multi-task while driving. Craft involves making an object or a result based upon the buzz you've gotten from your shot of Flow.
Someone in the audience posed the question whether video games are flow experiences. Many think they are distracting, but perhaps they are precisely about Flow. Add another two related activities to the video game experience and that might be the perfect recipe for Flow. But you wouldn't necessarily have to play video games to get into that brain state, but it would be interesting to follow the studies of brains on games, similar to brains on music.
I've always been interested in "flow" experiences, and they are difficult to come by. A friend of mine gets into Flow using Photoshop. I can get into them with music, although they are very brief, and are easily interrupted, not by the Internet, but by the process of craft.
Craft always presents problems, unless what you're doing is routine, in which case boredom would be a factor. Routines may seem like flows but they have open doors to distraction. Driving is a routine, so people think they can multi-task while driving. Craft involves making an object or a result based upon the buzz you've gotten from your shot of Flow.
Someone in the audience posed the question whether video games are flow experiences. Many think they are distracting, but perhaps they are precisely about Flow. Add another two related activities to the video game experience and that might be the perfect recipe for Flow. But you wouldn't necessarily have to play video games to get into that brain state, but it would be interesting to follow the studies of brains on games, similar to brains on music.
