Yes, there are times when I am part of what I am doing: the horse and I are one, the fight is crystal clear, the poem writes itself, the technical document (yes, even that) flows out of my fingertips and if someone tries to interrupt I wave them away and keep on typing. It is when there is no difference between work and play.

Jan

His chart on happiness vs, wealth has been proven to be nonsense. See http://www.brookings.edu/.../subjective%.....

This chart is used by socialist to push the idea that stealing money from people is fine, it is used by the anti-patent side to say people will create no matter what. It is a dangerous lie that needs to be exposed and not propagated. I could not get past this fundamental error.

I always referred to this as being in the groove, like on a race course, where you had picked the perfect line and were blasting around the track in record time. Unfortunately, I never found myself in the groove on the track, typically I find myself in the grove at the keyboard...while solving complex problems.

I read FLOW in the early '90s and was fortunate to meet the man in Casper, Wyoming, at a symposium on "creativity." FLOW changed my life when I accepted that it was me, no one else, that could commit to a project of any kind and, if I did, I would have more enjoyment. Since reading the book, I have observed many people (my wife is one) who have a much stronger, innate, ability to get into a state of flow without effort. I envy them. I think part of it has to do with the degree to which a person's personality is OCD (in the good sense) which I am not.

Yes. I love getting into the zone.

I'm not familiar with this man, but I do know that when I'm doing something I enjoy, something that is fulfilling, I get progressively better at it. But, that's almost a definition of achievement. It's well expressed in the song "What I Did For Love." Not sure how relevant this is, but WTH.

all of the government administrators that we joyfully elect to take as much of our money as possible are doing it for our own good so we can be happy. they know this and the fellow is proving it. sorry but i do not buy it. maybe a greater understanding of objectivist philosophy is needed.

I had several reactions to that talk. Early on, it reminded me of times at my first "real job" when I had the experience of challenge plus skill plus satisfaction, but it was nowhere near ten years in.

In fact, it was just a few years in. At ten years, the work became boring, as my development was thwarted by a lack of growth path in the organization and such a high level of problem-solving and innovation in the daily work that creativity was taken over by 'routine.'

But as he continued, and towards the end of the talk, I found myself in agreement with the last chart: when the combination in the environment provided the 'flow' experience, those were the 'happiest times' for me, including every work position AND every most-enjoyable experience in non-work hobbies and amusements, too!

I ended up forwarding the link for the talk to a large number of folks on my email lists.

thanks, Vinay, for the lead!

http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszen...

That's the transcript.