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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Paperback – July 1, 2008
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“Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . The manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
The bestselling classic that holds the key to unlocking meaning, creativity, peak performance, and true happiness.
Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper Perennial Modern Classics
- Publication dateJuly 1, 2008
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.76 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100061339202
- ISBN-13978-0061339202
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Documents a set of scientific discoveries about human nature that actually illuminates the life experiences of all persons." — Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind
“Flow is important....The way to happiness lies not in mindless hedonism, but in mindful challenge.” — New York Times Book Review
“Rethinks what motivates people.” — Newsweek
"An intriguing look at the age-old problem of human happiness." — Library Journal
“[A] passionate and eloquent defense...[of] intellectual as well as emotional commitment to pleasure, for society’s sake as well as our own.” — Booklist
“Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . a deep cultural critique . . . the manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Explore[s] a happy state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity” — Time magazine
“The insightful analyst Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that the key to gratification is completely absorbing work—he calls it ‘flow.’” — Salon.com
From the Back Cover
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
About the Author
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-2021) was a professor at Claremont Graduate University and former chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. His books include Creativity, The Evolving Self and the national bestseller Flow.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Flow
The Psychology of Optimal ExperienceBy Mihaly CsikszentHarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2008 Mihaly CsikszentAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780061339202
Introduction
Twenty-Three Hundred years ago Aristotle concluded that, more than anything else, men and women seek happiness. While happiness itself is sought for its own sake, every other goal--health, beauty, money, or power--is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy. Much has changed since Aristotle's time. Our understanding, of the worlds of stars and of atoms has expanded beyond belief. The gods of the Greeks were like helpless children compared to humankind today and the powers we now wield. And yet on this most important issue very little has changed in the intervening centuries. We do not understand what happiness is any better than Aristotle did, and as for learning how to attain that blessed condition, one could argue that we have made no progress at all.
Despite the fact that we are now healthier and grow to be older despite, the fact that even the least affluent among us are surrounded by material luxuries undreamed of even a few decades ago (there were few bathrooms in the palace of the Sun King, chairs were rare even in the richest medieval houses, and no Roman emperor could turn on a TV set when he was bored), and regardless of all the stupendous scientific knowledge we can summon at will, people often end upfeeling that their lives have been wasted, that instead of being filled with happiness their years were spent in anxiety and boredom.
Is this because it is the destiny of mankind to remain unfulfilled, each person always wanting more than he or she can have? Or is the pervasive malaise that often sours even our most precious moments the result of our seeking happiness in the wrong places? The intent of this book is to use some of the tools of modern psychology to explore this very ancient question: When do people feel most happy? If we can begin to find an answer to it, perhaps we shall eventually be able to order life so that happiness will play a larger part in it.
Twenty-five years before I began to write these lines, I made a discovery that took all the intervening time for me to realize I had made. To call it a "discovery" is perhaps misleading, for people have been aware of it since the dawn of time. Yet the word is appropriate, because even though my finding itself was well known, it had not been described or theoretically explained by the relevant branch of scholarship, which in this case happens to be psychology. So I spent the next quarter-century investigating this elusive phenomenon.
What I "discovered" was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.
Yet we cannot reach happiness by consciously searching for it. "Ask yourself whether you are happy," said J. S. Mill, "and you cease to be so." It is by being fully involved with every detall of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly. Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist, summarized it beautifully in the preface to his book Man's Search for Meaning:"Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue ... as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself."
So how can we reach this elusive goal that cannot be attaitied bya direct route? My studies of the past quarter-century have convinced me that there is a way. It is a circuitous path that begins with achieving control, over the contents of our consciousness.
Our perceptions about our lives are the outcome of many forces that shape experience, each having an impact on whether we feel good or bad. Most of these:forces are outside our control. There is not much we can do about our looks, our temperament, or our constitution. We cannot decide--at least so far how tall we will grow, how smart we will get. We can choose neither parents nor time of birth, and it is not in your power to decide whether there will be a war or a depression. The instructions contained in our genes, the pull of gravity, the pollen in the air, the historical period into which we are born--these and innumerable other conditions determine what we see, how we feel, what we do. It is not surprising that we should believe that our fate isprimarily ordained by outside agencies.
Yet we have all experienced times when, instead of being buffered by anonymous forces,we do feel in control of our actions, masters of our own fate. On the rare occasions that it happens, we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like.
This is what we mean by optimal experience.It is what the sailor holding a tight course feels when the wind whips through her hair, when theboat lunges through waves like a cblt--sails, hull, wind, and sea humming a harmony that vibrates in the sailor's veins. It is what a painter feels when the colors on the canvas begin to set up a magnetic tension with each other, and a new thing, a living form, takes shape in front of the astonished creator.
Continues...
Excerpted from Flowby Mihaly Csikszent Copyright © 2008 by Mihaly Csikszent. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : Harper Perennial Modern Classics; 1st edition (July 1, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0061339202
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061339202
- Item Weight : 8.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.76 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Popular Applied Psychology
- #10 in Popular Psychology Creativity & Genius
- #121 in Happiness Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book easy to read and insightful. They appreciate the flow concept and how it can make many things fun and enjoyable. Many consider it a valuable read and worth the investment in time and cost. The feedback quality is appreciated, with unambiguous and fast feedback. However, some readers feel there is too much repetition of ideas.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They appreciate the author's eloquence and insights. The chapters are well-organized, providing clarity.
"...The first one is clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them—goals and feedback in the family interaction are..." Read more
"...It sounds simple but it is rather complex. The book is written by an intellectual and at times its seem for intellectuals...." Read more
"...It is rather short and very readable and guaranteed to make you analyze your life and the life of your friends and family through the lens of the..." Read more
"...A magnificent Book." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's insights on happiness and flow. They find it a good overview of the author's research and examples. Readers describe it as life-changing, captivating, and relevant to modern life.
"...decades of research on the positive aspects of human experience—joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life I call flow...This book..." Read more
"...a few things happens, one time is distorted, you derived enjoyment in you life, the reward of life is established, and regardless if you have stress..." Read more
"...But this book (Flow) goes a long way to explain this term in a sensible manner and using examples from daily life that everyone of us can relate to...." Read more
"...Despite this, the author is still capable of conveying a decent amount of science and methodology behind his discovery and analysis of the optimal..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's focus on flow. They find it helpful for understanding the concept and ways to encourage it in their lives. The book provides a useful background on the psychology phenomenon of flow, which can make activities enjoyable and fun. While some readers feel the content is too academic at times, they consider it a valuable read that helps them reflect on the topic.
"...17- "To realize the body's potential for flow is relatively easy. It does not require special talents or great expenditures of money...." Read more
"...However, the flow concept is very important and I am grateful that someone went a long way to put it accesible and in simple terms...." Read more
"...The theory of flow does an excellent job describing many aspects of our lives and most importantly sheds light on the conditions of happy and..." Read more
"...Flow is worth reading if you're interested in creativity, focus, or purpose...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's value for money. They find it worthwhile, saying it's worth the effort and cost. The nuggets are valuable and make them think. It doesn't require special talents or great expenditures.
"...It does not require special talents or great expenditures of money...." Read more
"...When we're in flow, time disappears, effort feels effortless, and we’re fully absorbed in what we’re doing...." Read more
"...Something difficult, but doable, with a clear goal, and that requires a specific set of skills to perform a specific set of actions to get there...." Read more
"...Yes, being engaged in activity at proper challenge level can be very rewarding. Is it an answer for everything?..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book. They find it engaging and say even the simplest physical act becomes enjoyable when transformed into flow. The book helps them understand how to engage in happiness-producing action, like running their life like a RPG game.
"...aspects of human experience—joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life I call flow...This book tries instead to present general..." Read more
"...When a human being reaches this state, time seems to stop, enjoyment is superlative and self-consciousness disappears, as if one reached the state..." Read more
"...To use the author's own language it put me in a very deep and enjoyable "flow of thought"...." Read more
"...When experience is intrinsically rewarding, life is justified in the present, instead of being held hostage to a hypothetical future gain...Lost in..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's feedback quality. They find it provides clear and fast feedback, making the read a smooth experience. The book helps them manage their workflow and become more productive and efficient. It provides logical explanations and instant resolutions to achieve their goals.
"...possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback...." Read more
"...are amazing and are able to achieve flow with positive and outstanding results. He says the trick is that one has to believe in themselves...." Read more
"...But whenever we try it, we realize that excellence in performance provides great happiness...." Read more
"...for the "flow" experience: challenge of the right level, immediate feedback and a skill that can be mastered...." Read more
Customers have different views on the pacing of the book. Some find the thesis and anecdotes great, with clear lines. They say it provides thought-provoking food for thought and is brilliant. Others feel the book lacks structure, is unstructured, poorly written, and dull. While some appreciate the grim outlook, others find the rest dreary and a slog.
"...time, allowing you to fully express your skill level all the while remaining calm, focused and oftentimes creating a feeling of happiness...." Read more
"...It sounds simple but it is rather complex. The book is written by an intellectual and at times its seem for intellectuals...." Read more
"...Flow could be seen as a religious experience, hedonistic self-indulgence, or the answer to all of our problems...." Read more
"...Should blend in nicely with my other books and will look forward to handing these down to my future generations after I'm long gone." Read more
Customers find the book repetitive and boring. They feel it avoids interesting topics and questions, making it a waste of time. The stories are too many, leading to little enjoyment and flow.
"...15- "Without interest in the world, a desire to be actively related to it. a person becomes isolated into himself...." Read more
"...The book does have a small blemish in the fact that it gets a bit repetitive when it goes into listing the occurrence of flow in everyday settings...." Read more
"...But it is quite verbose and repeating. If you just read the subtitles, you will get about 60% of what is talked about." Read more
"...This book seems kind of lazy in avoiding intellectually interesting and practically important questions like these...." Read more
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Just read it and decide for yourself!! I’m loving it
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2014Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:
1- "This book summarizes, for a general audience, decades of research on the positive aspects of human experience—joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life I call flow...This book tries instead to present general principles. along with concrete examples of how some people have used these principles, to transform boring and meaningless lives into ones fill of enjoyment."
2- "What I "discovered" was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy."
3- "From their accounts of what it felt like to do what they were doing, I developed a theory of optimal experience based on the concept of flow—the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it."
4- "The most important step in emancipating oneself from social controls is the ability to find rewards in the events of each moment. If a person learns to enjoy and find meaning in the ongoing stream of experience, in the process of living itself, the burden of social controls automatically falls from one's shoulders. Power returns to the person when rewards are no longer relegated to outside forces. It is no longer necessary to struggle for goals that always seem to recede into the future, to end each boring day with the hope that tomorrow, perhaps, something good will happen. Instead of forever straining for the tantalizing prize dangled just out of reach, one begins to harvest the genuine rewards of living. But it is not by abandoning ourselves to instinctual desires that we become free of social controls. We must also become independent from the dictates of the body, and learn to take charge of what happens in the mind. Pain and pleasure occur in consciousness and exist only there. As long as we obey the socially conditioned stimulus-response patterns that exploit our biological inclinations, we are controlled from the outside. To the extent that a glamorous ad makes us salivate for the product sold or that a frown from the boss spoils the day, we are not free to determine the content of experience. Since what we experience is reality, as far as we are concerned, we can transform reality to the extent that we influence what happens in consciousness and thus free ourselves from the threats and blandishments of the outside world."
5- "Control over consciousness cannot be institutionalized. As soon as it becomes part of a set of social rules and norms, it ceases to be effective in the way it was originally intended to be. Routinization, unfortunately, tends to take place very rapidly. Freud was still alive when his quest for liberating the ego from its oppressors was turned into a Staid ideology and a rigidly regulated profession. Marx was even less fortunate: his attempts to free consciousness from the tyranny of economic exploitation were soon turned into a system of repression that would have boggled the poor founder's mind."
6- "Over the endless dark centuries of its evolution, the human nervous stem has become so complex that it is now able to affect its own states, making it to a certain extent functionally independent of its genetic blueprint and of the objective environment. A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happy "outside," just by changing the contents of consciousness. We all kn»now individuals who can transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome, just through the force of their personalities. This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others, and justly so; it is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well."
7- "Whenever information disrupts consciousness by threatening its goals we have a condition of inner disorder, or psychic entropy, a disorganization of the self that impairs its effectiveness. Prolonged experiences of this kind can weaken the self to the point that it is no longer able to invest attention and pursue its goals."
8- "Following a flow experience, the organization of the self is more complex than it had been before. It is by becoming increasing complex that the self might be said to grow. Complexity is the result of two broad psychological processes: differentiation and integration. Differentiation implies a movement toward uniqueness, toward separating oneself from others. Integration refers to its opposite: a union with other people. with ideas and entities beyond the self. A complex self is one that succeeds in combining these opposite tendencies. The self becomes more differentiated as a result of flow because overcoming a challenge inevitably leaves a person feeling more capable, more skilled. As the rock climber said, "You look back in awe at the self, at what you've done, it just blows your mind." After each episode of flow a person becomes more of a unique individual, less predictable, possessed of rarer skills. Complexity is often thought to have a negative meaning, synonymous with difficulty and confusion. That may be true, but only if we equate it with differentiation alone. Yet complexity also involves a second dimension—the integration of autonomous parts. A complex engine, for instance, not only has many separate components, each performing a different function, but also demonstrates a high sensitivity because each of the components is in touch with all the others. Without integration, a differentiated system would be a confusing mess. "low helps to integrate the self because in that state of deep concentration consciousness is unusually well ordered. Thoughts, intentions, feelings, and all the senses are focused on the same goal. Experience is in harmony."
9- "There are two main strategies we can adopt to improve the quality of life. The first is to try making external conditions match our goals. The second is to change how we experience external conditions to make them fit our goals better. For instance, feeling secure is an important component of happiness. The sense of security can be improved by buying a gun, installing strong locks on the front door, moving to a safer neighborhood, exerting political pressure on city hall for more police protection, or helping the community to become more conscious of the importance of civil order. All these different responses are aimed at bringing conditions in the environment more in line with our goals. The other method by which we can feel more secure involves modifying what we mean by security. If one does not expect perfect safety, recognizes hat risks are inevitable, and succeeds in enjoying a less than ideally predictable world, the threat of insecurity will not have as great a chance of marring happiness. Neither of these strategies is effective when used alone. Changing external conditions might seem to work at first, but if a person is not in control of his consciousness, the old fears or desires will soon return, reviving previous anxieties. One cannot create a complete sense of inner security even by buying one's own Caribbean island and surrounding it with armed bodyguards and attack dogs."
10- "As our studies have suggested, the phenomenology of enjoyment has eight major components. When people reflect on how it feels when their experience is most positive, they mention at least one, and often all, of the following. First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing. Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing. Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over. Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours. The combination of all these elements causes a sense of deep enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it."
11- "The same situation holds true for the artist painting a picture, and for all activities that are creative or open-ended in nature. But these are all activities that are creative or open-ended in nature. But these are all recognize and gauge feedback in such activities, she will not enjoy them. In some creative activities, where goals are not clearly set in advance, a person must develop a strong personal sense of what she intends to do. The artist might not have a visual image of what the finished painting should look like, but when the picture has progressed to a certain point, she should know whether this is what she wanted to achieve or not."
12- "As this example illustrates, what people enjoy is not the sense of being in control, but the sense of exercising? control in difficult situations. It is not possible to experience a feeling of control unless one is willing to give up the safety of protective routines. Only when a doubtful outcome is at stake, and one is able to influence that outcome, can a person really know whether she is in control."
13- "In our studies, we found that every flow activity, whether it involved competition, chance, or dimension of experience, had this in common: It provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed-of states of consciousness. In short, it transformed the self by making it more complex. In this growth of the self lies the key to flow activities."
14- "There is ample evidence to suggest that how parents interact with a child will have a lasting effect on the kind of person that child grow up to be. In one of our studies conducted at the University of Chicago, for example, Kevin Rathunde observed that teenagers who had certain types of relationship with their parents were significantly more happy, satisfied, and strong in most life situations than their peers who did not have such a relationship. The family context promoting optimal d experience could be described as having five characteristics. The first one is clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them—goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous. he second is centering, or the children's perception that their of parents are interested in what they are doing in the present, concrete feelings and experiences, rather than being preoccupied with whether they will be getting into a good college or obtaining a well-paying job. Next is the issue of choice: children feel that the variety of possibilities from which to choose, including that of breaking parental rules—as long as they are prepared to face the consequences. The fourth differentiating characteristic is commitment, or the trust that allows the child to feel comfortable enough to set aside the shield of his defenses. and become unselfconsciously involved in whatever he is interested in. And finally there is challenge, or the parents' dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children."
15- "Without interest in the world, a desire to be actively related to it. a person becomes isolated into himself. Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest philosophers of our century, described how he achieved personal happiness: "Gradually 1 learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection." There could be no better short description of how to build for oneself an autotelic personality. In part such a personality is a gift of biological inheritance and early upbringing. Some people are born with a more focused and flexible neurological endowment, or are fortunate to have had parents who promoted unselfconscious individuality. But it is an ability open to cultivation, a skill one can perfect through training and discipline. It is now time to explore further the ways this can be done."
16- "Even the simplest physical act becomes enjoyable when it is transformed so as to produce flow. The essential steps in this process are: (a) to set an overall goal, and as many subgoals as are realistically feasible; (b) to find ways of measuring progress in terms of the goals chosen; (c) to keep concentrating on what one is doing, and to keep making finer and finer distinctions in the challenges involved in the activity; (d) to develop the skills necessary to interact with the opportunities available; and (e) to keep raising the stakes if the activity becomes boring."
17- "To realize the body's potential for flow is relatively easy. It does not require special talents or great expenditures of money. Everyone can greatly improve the quality of life by exploring one or more previously ignored dimensions of physical abilities. Of course, it is difficult for any one person to reach high levels of complexity in more than one physical domain. The skills necessary to become good athletes, dancers, or connoisseurs of sights, sounds, or tastes are so demanding that one individual not have enough psychic energy in his waking lifetime to master more than a few. But it is certainly possible to become a dilettante—in finest sense of that word—in all these areas, in other words, to develop sufficient skills so as to find delight in what the body can do."
18- "But for a person who has nothing to remember, life can become severely impoverished. This possibility was completely overlooked by educational reformers early in this century, who, armed with research results, proved that "rote learning" was not an efficient way to store and acquire information. As a result of their efforts, rote learning was phased out of the schools. The reformers would have had justification, if the point of remembering was simply to solve practical problems. But if control of consciousness is judged to be at least as important as the ability to get things done, then learning complex patterns of information by heart is by no means a waste of effort. A mind with some stable content to it is much richer than one without. It is a mistake to assume that creativity and rote learning are incompatible. Some of the most original scientists, for instance, have been known to have memorized music, poetry, or historical information extensively."
19- "External forces are very important in determining which new ideas will be selected from among the many available; but they cannot explain their production. It is perfectly true, for instance, that the development and application of the knowledge of atomic energy were expedited enormously by the life-and-death struggle over the bomb between dited enormously by the life-and-death struggle over the bomb between Germany on the one hand, and England and the United States on the little to the war; it was made possible through knowledge laid down in more peaceful circumstances—for example, in the friendly exchange of more peaceful circumstances—tor example, in the friendly exchange of over to Niels Bohr and his scientific colleagues by a brewery in Copenhagen."
20- "The bad connotations that the terms amateur and dilettante have earned for themselves over the years are due largely to the blurring of the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic goals. An amateur who pretends to know as much as a professional is probably wrong, and up to some mischief. The point of becoming an amateur scientist is not to compete with professionals on their own turf, but to use a symbolic discipline to extend mental skills, and to create order in consciousness."
21- "At the same time, it would be erroneous to expect that if all ill jobs were constructed like games, everyone would enjoy them. Even the mos favorable external conditions do not guarantee that a person will 1 be in flow. Because optimal experience depends on a subjective evaluation of what the possibilities for action are, and of one's own capacities, it happens quite often that an individual will be discontented even with a potentially great job."
22- "A community should be judged good not because it is technologically advanced, or swimming in material riches; it is good if it offers people a chance to enjoy as many aspects of their lives as possible, while allowing them to develop their potential in the pursuit of ever greater challenges. Similarly the value of a school does not depend on its prestige, or its ability to train students to face up to the necessities of life, but rather on the degree of the enjoyment of lifelong learning it can transmit. A good factory is not necessarily the one that makes the most money, but the one that is most responsible for improving the quality of life for its workers and its customers. And the true function of politics is not to make people more affluent, safe, or powerful, but to let as many as possible enjoy an increasingly complex existence."
23- "Why are some people weakened by stress, while others gain strength from it? Basically the answer is simple: those who know how to transform a hopeless situation into a new flow activity that can be controlled will be able to enjoy themselves, and emerge stronger from the ordeal. There are three main steps that seem to be involved in such transformations: 1. Unselfconscious self-assurance...2. Focusing attention on the world...3. The discovery of new solutions."
24- "THE AUTOTELIC SELF: A SUMMARY - 1. Setting goals...2. Becoming immersed in the activity...3.Paying attention to what is happening...4. Learning to enjoy immediate experience."
25- "But complexity consists of integration as well as differentiation. The task of the next decades and centuries is to realize this underdeveloped component of the mind. Just as we have learned to separate ourselves from each other and from the environment, we now need to learn how to reunite ourselves with other entities around us without losing our hard-won individuality. The most promising faith for the future might be based on the realization that the entire universe is a system related by common laws and that it makes no sense to impose our dreams and desires on nature without taking them into account. Recognizing the limitations of human will, accepting a cooperative rather than a ruling role in the universe, we should feel the relief of the exile who is finally returning home. The problem of meaning will then be resolved as the individual's purpose merges with the universal flow."
- Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2012My takeaway from reading the book, Flow by Michaly Csikzentmihalyi is that happiness can be achieved by changing consciousness in which you bring order to tasks that you do (sometimes daily) and can bring enjoyment to your life, hence happiness and it called flow.
It sounds simple but it is rather complex. The book is written by an intellectual and at times its seem for intellectuals. You have to pay attention otherwise you'd be like me when I had to re-read the paragraph for it to make it sense.
The premise is that for you to be happy-you have to overcome challenges and use your skills to do it. Flow and happiness are by-product of the task. But there is a delicate balance between the complexity of the challenge and the complexity of your skill. It have to be aligned. If one is greater then the other, then you will need to increase and improve your skills or lower the challenge. Only then, will flow exist. The author gives a few examples of this: a tribe in New Zealand moves every seven years as to give the tribe new trails, new enemies, new challenge for the happiness of the group. And he give examples of a culture that every year destroys a monument and re-builds it trying to make it better and more beautiful.
To achieve flow , there are clear rules that must be followed: The task must have clear goals and actions needed to overcome the obstacles. Immediate feedback is needed to see what you doing is working or not working. The challenge and the skills must be aligned but it has to stretch the person, it has be hard enough to do but not too hard where he will give up. Once the goal is met, a new goal needs to be set. Once, flow is established a few things happens, one time is distorted, you derived enjoyment in you life, the reward of life is established, and regardless if you have stress in your life or not, you bounce back and establish flow.
One question I had once, How can I apply this in my life? I have goals I have not reached. It begs the question, are the goals too unrealistic and complex or do I lack the skills to achieve and overcome the challenge. I think my conclusion is the latter so I have to find a way to increase and improve my skills.
My other takeaway is that the author states many times, that life is inherently hard , filled with stress and for him the admirable trait is one of perseverance, resiliency and of confidence. That becomes the challenge and few individuals are able to do this, he gives examples of veterans wounded in combat who attitude and resiliency are amazing and are able to achieve flow with positive and outstanding results. He says the trick is that one has to believe in themselves. The attitude is of a pilot who knows if he runs into problems , he can safely land the plane.
My last takeaway from the book, is that he repeats himself and in one of the reviews, it said it was a bad thing. When, actually for me is a good thing, he talks a lot of psychic energy and how is used. Psychic energy is what you pay attention to every day. It is limited and it has to be used wisely. He talks a lot of external and internal forces and how you cannot control external but you can control internal, the consciousness, the psychic energy, the attention and the positive attitude knowing you can do it regardless what hte external pressures are. He has a few favorite workers describing flow, the surgeon who challenge is obvious and so is his feedback, the operation was either a success or failure, the dancer who is totally absorbed in her performance, where time doesn't exit, the mountain climber who sees every little details in his quest to climb the mountain. The concentration is like breathing, they are not aware of it, an explosion could occur near by and they wouldn't be aware of it. He talks a lot about paradoxes, how you must change consciousness to achieve flow but by doing you lose your self, you become part of what you are doing- by being in control, you lose control and perfection and clarity occurs.
I really enjoyed the book, overall my recommendation is positive, However, there a one thing I wish I would have seen. I am a big fan of summaries and the last chapter didn't make sense to me, he talked about the meaning of life and different models of it. For me , it would have make more sense, to tie it up and give practical example how an average person could use flow, I understand he wrote, a seguel to Flow, maybe he explains in practical manner how to use flow in your life not how dancers, chess players, musicians and surgeons uses flow.
I do recommend Flow and you will see how you can use it in your own life.
Top reviews from other countries
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Maria Guadalupe Vega LópezReviewed in Mexico on February 20, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Contemporáneo y de interés
A pesar de haber sido escrito hace algunos años, su interés no decrece
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Client d'AmazonReviewed in France on January 23, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Bien, mais en anglais
Bien mais en anglais (évidemment)
- gauravReviewed in India on March 7, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible!
This is a masterpiece. A great insight into what the author calls the flow state where a person is so immersed in an activity that he loses track of time and space. The book will seem little difficult to read in the first chapter because of the writing style but soon you will get in the flow 😉. This is a must read if you are exploring psychological aspects of meaning and happiness.
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Olaf PalmerReviewed in Brazil on January 24, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Um livro que muda vidas
Quantas vezes não nos deparamos com alguma atividade: ler um excelente livro, praticar um esporte, ou simplesmente resolver um puzzle, caça palavras, sudoku, etc. na qual estamos tão concentrados que perdemos a noção do tempo? E ao final ainda temos aquela sensação de satisfação e de que aquilo foi realmente proveitoso.
Neste livro, o autor teoriza e desenvolve o conceito de fluxo (Flow), estado mental de atenção plena e concentração profunda. O livro é intensamente baseado em pesquisas da área de psicologia e dá diretrizes de como este estado mental é importante para o indivíduo ter experiências positivas e melhorar a qualidade de vida.
Entender um pouco como o estado de Fluxo funciona abre a possibilidade de o leitor vislumbrar uma melhor maneira de desenvolver hábitos produtivos e investir seu precioso tempo em atividades que melhorem a qualidade de vida.
Confesso que é um livro que norteou minha visão de mundo atualmente. E além de tudo, é muito bem escrito.
Excelente.
Citando o livro: "Quando nós escolhemos um objetivo e nos investimos nele até o limite da nossa concentração, qualquer coisa que fizermos será agradável."
- Keith McLReviewed in Canada on December 7, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Important Books in my Home Library.
I first bought “Flow the Psychology of Optimal Experience” in the 1990s. I also bought the Kindle version several years ago. I opened my Kindle copy of “Flow” last week and was astonished to see how it synthesized my Zen, mindfulness, Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers, Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Psychology’s stimulus-response conditioning, learning skills like Tai Chi, and much more.
The following is a quote from Flow:
“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these (Optimal Experience), the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something we make happen.” (flow, P.3) For clarification, I inserted (Optimal Experience).