"Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience"

I was first introduced to the ideas of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi last year while reading a magazine article on happiness. I finally read his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Flow "is the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter." The process itself provides enjoyment. Csikszentmihalyi developed a theory on the optimal experience based on the concept of flow. He argues that there are several requirements needed to create an optimal experience: it must be challenging and require skill, involve a great deal of focus, provide clear goals and feedback, initiate a loss of self-consciousness, and transform time.

Csikzsentmihalyi goes on to explain that since the optimal experience depends on the capacity to control what occurs in our consciousness we all have the ability to achieve flow and therefore create happiness at anytime. "Attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience" because it determines what appears in our consciousness. He labels attention psychic energy and explains that "we create ourselves by how we invest this energy." Any information that enters our consciousness will be interpreted and evaluated. If it conflicts with our intentions it will create psychic entropy or disorder in our consciousness - i.e: fear, anxiety, anger, or jealousy. If it reinforces our aims order is maintained and psychic energy is not wasted because there is "no threat for the self to defend against."

In his research on the conditions of flow, Csikszentmihalyi found that every flow experience "provided a sense of discovery...and pushed the person to higher levels of performance. It transformed the self by making it more complex." This growth of the self is the key to flow. The following diagram demonstrates this process. When you learn a new sport or activity you will engage in flow because the challenge matches your novice skill level (A1). If you keep practicing and introduce new challenges you will maintain flow (A4). However when we aren't challenged we become bored (A2) and when we don't practice to develop skills new challenges will create anxiety (A3). Notice that A1 and A4 are both flow, yet are quite different because A4 is a more complex experience as it involves greater challenges and skills.

We can create flow in any experience in any aspect of our lives. There are literally thousands of opportunities to expand ourselves physically, mentally, at work, with family or friends, and when we are alone. The formula for flow is constant. Any experience can be transformed at will because it is the result of our channeled attention. The irony is that despite the astounding number of opportunities within our reach, "most of us go on being bored and vaguely frustrated." New challenges are avoided and inner discipline suffers.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is well written and researched by Csikszentmihalyi and his staff. The concept of flow is relatively simple but can be applied to every facet of our lives. I thoroughly enjoyed Flow. As a result, I highly recommended that you read this book. I look forward to reading more books by Csikszentmihalyi.

Remembrance Review

In honour of Remembrance Day I am reviewing Michael Jones' Leningrad: State of Siege. The 872-day blockade of Leningrad during World War Two had been on my "to-read" list for a while so I was quite excited.

Jones begins by setting up the siege, how the German war machine was able to march rapidly through unsuspecting and unprepared USSR. The Wehrmacht was professional and possessed highly experienced generals, and the attacking advantage. High morale and Nazi race propaganda against the Slavic Communists aided their aggressive thrust toward Leningrad.

The Red Army on the other hand was nearly the complete opposite. The Soviets had little effective leadership thanks to Stalin's purges. The army was disorganized, ill-prepared, poorly trained, and lacked any form of coordination. The commander of the Soviet North-Western Front was incompetent and only in position due to his loyalty to Stalin.

By September 1941 Leningrad's nightmare had begun. Jones incorporates information from archives, interviews, and diaries to describe in detail the ravenous, frigid, distressed, and disheartened daily life of the citizens. Over the next six months the people of Leningrad experimented with alternative food sources: domestic animals, joiner's glue, wallpaper paste, and leather belts. In addition decreasing bread rations, frequent bombing raids, and gang activity wreaked havoc on the citizens. By January there was no running water, heat, or electricity. During these appalling conditions thousands of people died each day. Corpses accumulated in the streets and cannibalism became more common. In February a new threat emerged in the city - a dysentery epidemic.

First-hand accounts of life during the siege reveal how people survived such horrific circumstances. Thousands wrote journals as an outlet and to document their situation. Others developed a daily routine which kept them preoccupied. Citizens also sustained hope through music, a desire to help others, poetry, simple physical exercises, or devotion to loved ones or the city. The warming weather and the improving efficiency of the "Road of Life" in the spring of 1942 also contributed to the health and hope of citizens.

I felt that the author lingered on certain issues and events longer than others. The first six months of the siege takes up half the book while the last twenty-two months are wrapped up in under seventy pages. I understand Jones wanted to illustrate the worst of the siege and the extent of human suffering but it makes the book repetitive in some chapters. I believe the abundance of quotes were unnecessary or at times irrelevant.

Nevertheless, Leningrad: State of Siege, provides the reader with great context to the siege, a concise overview of the blockade, and a new appreciation for life. I'm sure there are more extensive and superior books on the subject, but I still found this book worth reading.

"Good Work"

Recently I was introduced to the ideas of Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, a British economist most noted for his theory of "intermediate technology." I picked up a copy of his "Good Work" to find out more.

Schumacher believes that work is one of the most determinative authorities on a person's disposition and personality. Despite of this no textbook or school teaches about the theory or objectives of work: "The question of what work does to the worker is hardly ever asked." Schumacher goes on to suggest three purposes of work: 1) to produce goods and services 2) to allow us to use and perfect our talents (self development) 3) to do this in service to and in harmony with others thereby emancipating ourselves from our egocentricity.

He moves on to assert the negative affects of our modern industrial society. "It sentences the great majority of workers to spending their working lives in a way which contains no worthy challenge, no stimulus to self-perfection, and no chance of development." Through a Marxist lens Schumacher argues that technology is the real problem rather than the "system." The bourgeoisie or capitalists created modern technologies and therein a system designed to suit those technologies. Schumacher proposes that technology suffers four adverse trends: 1) trend to become bigger and bigger 2) inclination toward increasing complexity 3) trend towards capital-costly and 4) the drift towards violence (against nature and increase in violent attitudes - science can do no wrong).

Schumacher is quick to offer his solution to these trends. He argues that changing our system would require implementing a new type of technology - intermediate technologies - by which individuals can make themselves productive and independent. Technologies that "fit the given conditions." One example of intermediate (or appropriate) technology given by Schumacher is an egg tray which allows Zambian farmers to safely transport their eggs to market. The other day I read about another appropriate technology in Nepal.

He proceeds to discuss administration, management, and workforce size incorporating first hand examples from his various jobs. Schumacher believes the best businesses (in terms of the worker) have minimum administration, a buoyant structure (picture a group of helium balloons; all on the same level and interdependent), and acceptable staffing numbers to keep the human touch.

Finally, Schumacher takes a metaphysical approach to the education of good work. Education for good work should begin the questions: What is man and what is the purpose of his life? A study of traditional wisdom would find that the goal of life is perfection. The path to this goal is good work.

"Good work" published in 1979, was compiled from lectures and previously written essays. Therefore it is not the best written book. However "Good Work" includes some great insights from Schumacher still applicable today. His thoughts on the workplace, technology, and business were ahead of his time. I would deem "Good Work" worth reading.