Summer Reading Group 2022 (FLOW, post #3)

 

This is the third installment of my book review of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. (post #1 is here, post #2 here).

Chapters 7 and 8 of Flow address the two things that impact our quality of life more than anything else, and so they are probably the most important chapters of the book.  Those two factors are (1) how we experience work (not actually what we do for work, but rather how we experience it, which Csikszentmihalyi contends is amenable to the control of consciousness), and (2) our relations with other people.

Chapter 7 is titled “Work as Flow” and a central focus of the chapter is on “autotelic workers”, individuals who have “the ability to create flow experiences even in the most barren of environments” (149).  It is critical to note that Csikszentmihalyi does not argue that there is only a limited list of specific jobs that provide people with optimal experience, and then other jobs which involve so much drudgery and toll that no flow could ever be experienced doing them.  Instead he goes to great lengths to note that the attitude or temperament we have about work is critical.  This is not to deny the reality that the nature of work can also be important, which it is.  But our attitude about work is very important and this insight is, for me, perhaps the most surprising and significant insight of the book. Most people simply ask themselves the question- “what job would make me happy? (or, perhaps more plausibly, “what job will inflict the minimal misery/boredom on me?”).  But Csikszentmihalyi’s study of flow suggests an important and neglected issue is the mindset we should have about work, which can make the particulars of the work we do less important.  The latter is of course important as well.  There are two methods Csikszentmihalyi notes (p. 152) that can be pursued for achieving flow in work: 

(1)   Develop the autotelic personality:  a person who can change constraints into opportunities for expressing freedom and creativity.

 

(2)   Change jobs:  the more a job resembles a game- with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback- the more enjoyable it will be regardless of the worker’s level of development (152).

 

When elaborating on (1) Csikszentmihaly provides the examples of Serafina, Joe and Ting.  Serafina is a 76 year old women in the Italian Alps who awakes at 5am each day to milk her cows.  She is immersed in the life activities of being on the farm- taking the cows to pasture, cooking large breakfasts, her lifestyle blends “work” and “play”.  For Serafina such a distinction is artificial.

Joe worked in a factory plant and mastered every job at the plant.  He could fix any machine at the plant, and his “fixing” mentality was part of his childhood fascination with learning how machines worked.  His curiosity and passion were intense and he found ways to exercise these in the factory plant.

Ting is a character in the Taoist scholar Chuang Tzu’s parable of a humble worker.  Ting is a cook whose job involves butchering meat for nobility. When preparing the food, such as cutting meat, Ting would have a transcendental experience.  Such a process was one in which he discovered new challenges that enabled him to enter into flow.

Now not everyone’s job presents the opportunities these three autotelic personalities enjoy, so what can one do if they do not experience much flow at work?  Before deciding to change jobs (option 2) Csikszentmihaly emphasizes the point that some of our current discontent with work may be due to our attitudes/mindset, and thus it could be changed by looking at things differently. The 3 most common complaints about work that Csikszentmihaly identifies (p. 161) are (1) lack of variety and challenge, (2) conflict at work (especially with bosses) and (3) burnout (too much stress, too little time with family, etc.). 

Csikszentmihaly argues that (1) is often determined by how you look at your work.  The three autotelic personalities he addresses all did work that some people would no doubt find dull and meaningless.  So one must approach work with the right mindset, it is not purely down to the actual working conditions of a job.  For (2), conflict at work can be managed (though I think Csikszentmihaly perhaps underestimates how challenging this may be for many people).  With (3) Csikszentmihaly argues there are numerous ways to reduce work stress- delegate responsibilities, be more organized, better communication and improved home life,  meditation etc.

For the second strategy of finding more flow at work, namely, changing jobs, Csikszentmihaly claims that the more a job resembles a game the better its potential for flow.  So work features like variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback (p. 152) will make the work more enjoyable for the worker.

Chapter 8 is entitled “Enjoying Solitude and Other People” and it covers a number of important, substantive topics.   Csikszentmihaly asserts (p. 164) that we are “biologically programmed to find other human beings the most important objects in the world”.  People can make our lives very interesting and fulfilling, and yet they can also make our lives miserable!  Thus how we manage human relationships makes a significant impact on our happiness and wellbeing.  If we learn to make our relationships with others more like flow experiences, our quality of life as a whole is going to be much improved” (164).

      But Csikszentmihaly also notes that we value or privacy and some alone time.  But as soon as we are alone (for prolonged periods) we can become depressed.  It is critical, contends Csikszentmihaly, that we learn ways to control our consciousness so that we can tolerate being alone.  Why is being alone so painful?  Csikszentmihaly’s answer is that keeping order within the mind from within is very difficult.  Connecting with others provides external goals, stimulation, feedback, etc. and so help focus our attention.  When we don’t focus our attention in this way it is easy for our minds to focus and ruminate on negative thoughts and experiences – our health, our finances, our job, our love life, etc., etc. 

The real danger of solitude is that we can indulge in coping strategies that are maladaptive, such as the regular use of drugs or engaging in obsessive practices like incessant cleaning or compulsive sexual behaviour.  These provide some short-term reprieve from the pain of solitude.  But the real test of our ability to control the quality of experience, argues Csikszentmihaly (p. 171), is what a person does in solitude.  The bad strategy is to frantically seek out distraction from our solitude.  The positive strategy is to take on activities that are not only enjoyable, but that make us self-grow.  Drug abuse, incessant cleaning and sex addiction do not help us grow, they do not present complex challenges we must refine skills to navigate.

Csikszentmihaly remarks:

To fill free time with activities that require concentration, that increase skills, that lead to a development of the self, is not the same as killing time by watching television or taking recreational drugs.  Although both strategies might seem as different ways of coping with the same threat of chaos, as defenses against ontological anxiety, the former leads to growth, while the latter merely serves to keep the mind from unraveling.  A person who rarely gets bored, who does not constantly need a favorable external environment to enjoy the moment, has passed the test for having achieved a creative life. (171)

He does note that some (rare) individuals chose to actually live alone.  Csikszentmihaly provides the example (p. 171) of Dorothy, a widowed nurse who decided, after her children were grown, to move to the wilderness of a tiny island, in a cabin in Minnesota.  She personalized her surroundings (garden gnomes, flower tubs, etc.) and will go months with no other human contact.  In addition to structuring her space (making if familiar), Dorothy also structures her time.  She has a strict routine for every day of the year, awaking at 5am to check the hens for eggs, milking the goat, etc.  By ordering her attention she survives solitude, taking her mind off unpleasant thoughts and feelings.  She actually enjoys solitude, seeing it as an opportunity for growth, to achieve higher levels of complexity. 

      With respect to the family, Csikszentmihaly notes that, “because it is our first and in many ways our most important social environment, quality of life depends to a large extent on how well a person succeeds in making the interaction with his or her relatives enjoyable” (177).  Each relationship- with a spouse, child, friend, etc.- requires a reorienting of attention, “a repositioning of goals”. Family life must help create flow activity lest it degrade into boredom and frustration.  This means the family must have a goal for its existence, both short-term and long-term goals.  By doing so Csikszentmihaly claims the family helps increase the complexity of its members, enabling all to be both differentiated and integrated.  The former means that each person develops their own unique traits, qua individual person.  And integration means we understand that what happens to one person impacts other family members. 

So having long-term family goals (e.g. certain lifestyle, values, etc.) and short-term goals (e.g. planning a picnic, planning a vacation, etc.) help keep a family physically and psychologically connected. 

When it comes to friends Csikszentmihaly notes (p. 186) that young adults and retirees are happier when the spend time their friends than with anyone else, including their spouses! [just an aside, my own thoughts…. this might explain the high divorce rate!]  He notes that, because friendships are chosen and involve common goals and activities, they are “naturally enjoyable”.  But he contends that friendships, like any relationship, can also be destructive.  For example, when they stifle rather than facilitate growth.  His example is of “drinking buddies.”  Such activity can keep the disorganization of solitude at bay, but it functions much the same way as collectively watching TV.  While perhaps a bit more complex than watching television, it is rigidly scripted and highly predictable and provides few of the benefits of actual friendship. 

      The good news in this chapter is that, because human relationships are malleable, we can shape them to increase our positive experiences.  Creating more flow in our romantic lives, friendship and in our approach to parenting as our kids develop will result in mutual personal growth and development and the enjoyment of more optimal experience.

Csikszentmihaly does note (on page 189, which I was glad to see!) that the ideal of modern marriage is to have one’s spouse as a friend.  In previous times we married for the conveniences of both families and there was great external pressure to get married. 

The final topic in the chapter is the wider community.  As Csikszentmihaly notes, the ancient Greek meaning of “politics” = affairs that went beyond personal and family welfare.  Getting involved in our communities should follow the flow recipe (p. 190): set goals, concentrate one’s psychic energy, pay attention to feedback, and make sure the activity is appropriate to one’s skill level.

Below are a few questions to consider (see… set goals! ha ha) to facilitate the flow experience in our group discussion:  

#1 One of the central insights from chapter 7 is that we tend to think (mistakenly) that work is something to avoid, and leisure time something to maximize.  And yet the reverse seems to be true, that work actually adds much more optimal experience to our lives and we often struggle with leisure.  What has your experience of work and leisure been like?     

#2  The 3 main struggles Csikszentmihaly identifies with respect to finding flow in work is lack of variety, conflict with people and burnout.  Have these arisen in your own work lives?  And if so, what did you try (either successfully or unsuccessfully) to remedy the problem?  How do you feel about solitude, something most of us have experienced more of during the pandemic?  Do you struggle with or find it natural to keep order within your mind? 

#3.  Do you agree with Csikszentmihaly’s claim that we are “biologically programmed to find other human beings the most important objects in the world”?  

#4.  What has your experience be with respect to flow in romantic partnerships, parenting, friendship and community?

Should make for a fun, flow-filled discussion!

Cheers,

Colin