Oh, what a loss. I think I first heard of his work in Lyall Watson's book Neophilia in the late 80s. I was so mesmerized by the concept of flow that was always looking for anything new Csikszentmihalyi had published, or any psychology or neuroscience studies about flow and related ideas on human cognition. He will certainly be missed.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
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Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#22Csikszentmihalyi was Hungarian. I live in Hungary, and often work from a coffee shop called Flow with a Csikszentmihalyi quote on the wall, "Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz." RIP
I love Flow, it's my favorite cafe to work from in Budapest. Can't wait to visit home so I can hang out there again.
Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#23[deleted]
Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#24May his soul rest in peace _/|\_
May he flow in peace _/|\_
Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#25Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#26The correct name is Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (never mind the diacritics, but the "i" appended to the first name is definitely wrong). Explanation for language nerds: Mihály is the Hungarian version of "Michael", Csíkszentmihály is a Hungarian village in Romania with a name derived from St. Michael ( https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mih%C4%83ileni,_Harghita ), and the "i" at the end denotes a toponymic surname ( https://e…
"Cheeks sent me high"
Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#27The correct name is Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (never mind the diacritics, but the "i" appended to the first name is definitely wrong). Explanation for language nerds: Mihály is the Hungarian version of "Michael", Csíkszentmihály is a Hungarian village in Romania with a name derived from St. Michael ( https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mih%C4%83ileni,_Harghita ), and the "i" at the end denotes a toponymic surname ( https://e…
"Cheeks sent me high"
Hungarian here: that is a remarkably close approximation. Almost perfect, except the vowel in "me" is longer than our short "i" which sounds just like the vowel in the word "in".
Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
can you tell us the titles of the books you've read?
I believe it was these three: Daniel Kahneman, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Susan Cain, "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" Daniel Pink, "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" So, maybe not entirely unrelated, but I certainly wasn't looking for a specific theme. Just working down my non-fiction list.
Might be a strange question to ask, but do you "get" anything out of reading non-fiction? Like, is there a substantive benefit you gained from reading these books?
Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#29For those interested in the flow state, I became convinced that this is the kind of state achieved while practicing Zazen meditation :
https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/meditation-instructio...
At one point, the only activity of being sit is the one necessary to reach the flow state.
Re: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has died
#30For the casual HN reader, he was the one who recognized and scientifically described the creative state of "flow" [1] Why would it be of interest for the audience of hackernews? Well, programmers and related fields' mostly creative workers tend to experience the flow, and even though it is hard to explain (or describe, for that matter) most of us agree that it's great to be in. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl…
He didn't just describe the flow state, but also identified the conditions to achieve it. One can modify their experience according to these conditions to enter a flow state. For example, when the problem you're working on is too hard, then first work on a simplified version; or make it harder if it's too easy! When feedback cycle is long, then first make it shorter, e.g., make tests run faster, etc.
I highly recommend reading his book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”.
Rest in peace sir.