I think Flow is one of the most important ideas to have come out of psychology. My hypothesis for why it’s not more widely known is that the creator’s name is so difficult to spell and pronounce.
My belief is that the learning part of your brain sends a signal to the decision-making part, when the former is experiencing a type of stimulus that is highly learnable. That signal is treated by the decision making part in the same way as a more typically pleasant signal (food, sex, etc) would be. Flow is thus an evolutionary adaptation that makes us seek experiences that help us learn more rapidly (the underlying assumption being that not all stimuli are equally learnable).
I think Flow is pretty good as a theory of fun, or as a theory of fun-from-learning. Flow is the best way to learn. The problem is that not all ideas can be learned in a way that meets the Flow criteria (rapid feedback, ability to experiment, clear goals, challenge keyed to ability level). So the interesting questions in my view are how to rephrase learning problems in such a way that one can enter Flow states when approaching those problems.
I think Flow is one of the most important ideas to have come out of psychology. My hypothesis for why it’s not more widely known is that the creator’s name is so difficult to spell and pronounce.
It’s a sad comment on academia and humanity that this hypothesis is not the least bit implausible.
I think Flow is one of the most important ideas to have come out of psychology. My hypothesis for why it’s not more widely known is that the creator’s name is so difficult to spell and pronounce.
My belief is that the learning part of your brain sends a signal to the decision-making part, when the former is experiencing a type of stimulus that is highly learnable. That signal is treated by the decision making part in the same way as a more typically pleasant signal (food, sex, etc) would be. Flow is thus an evolutionary adaptation that makes us seek experiences that help us learn more rapidly (the underlying assumption being that not all stimuli are equally learnable).
I think Flow is pretty good as a theory of fun, or as a theory of fun-from-learning. Flow is the best way to learn. The problem is that not all ideas can be learned in a way that meets the Flow criteria (rapid feedback, ability to experiment, clear goals, challenge keyed to ability level). So the interesting questions in my view are how to rephrase learning problems in such a way that one can enter Flow states when approaching those problems.
It’s a sad comment on academia and humanity that this hypothesis is not the least bit implausible.
We totally need an article about Flow. Who’s up for writing one?