Flow

The Psychology of Optimal Experience

De: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Narrado por: Donald Corren

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s famous investigations of “optimal experience” have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

“Explore[s] a happy state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity.”—Time©1990 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (P)2024 Recorded Books

Wisdom

The book I needed to hear to understand that it’s okay to love what I love doing, and why I have my existential crises.

Pretty sure that this is a pearl

In the beginning I was fascinated by the power of the concept of flow! Snd I still am. The book post me a bit in the let’s say second half, but probably it was just me, lost in other thoughts! Definitely a recommendation, a must read/listen again for me and most likely a potential top ten book in my physical shelf! 🙌

Incisive and intelligent

I finished this listen in bed before I began the day — one of my favorite ways to enjoy audiobooks — then headed off to the bathroom to begin my morning routine. Stepping on the scale even half-asleep, it dawned on me that I was already engaging in a “flow” activity, as defined by the author. I was meeting his four requirements: 1) a defined goal (in my case, getting down to 170 lbs.) 2) a clear set of rules (weighing in on a scale, in the buff, daily) 3) utilizing a skill (or, in this case, a discipline - dieting) and 4) getting "feedback" from the scale.
Did I find this enjoyable, as the author promises? I have to say yes, particularly since I was about 4 lbs. under my usual, even after all the Christmas dinners and desserts I had gobbled.
Keep in mind that the book is about 30 years old, so there are occasional parts that sound dated. But that’s irrelevant in this case. Happiness hasn’t gone out of style lately, and most people are still in the dark as to how to find it.
The narration in this one, particularly considering the range of concepts covered, is another thing of that flows quite well.

Never Delivered

I was waiting for my epiphany moment with this book as it was recommended to me by therapist but it never connected.
I don't regret the time spent but wouldn't read/listen to it twice.

Okay book

Nothing ground breaking or eye opening, however, still a good listen on a boring road

Excellent work!

A masterpiece! About to start my second listening. Great addition to the library. Buy this book!

Merely adequate

I bought this in audio. I wanted a "How To" book on getting into the flow state. This is more of a history book. Parts of the book is interesting, but I stopped listening halfway through the book because it never seemed it would accomplish what I bought it for. Maybe when I run out of audiobooks to listen to, I'll listen to the second half, but right now it seems to be a waste of time.

Meh

Out of all the books I listened to this month, this resonated with me the least. For lack of better articulation, it was boring. The information wasn’t presented in an engaging way for me. Glad to hear that others found it helpful though.

Too much examples of "flow" no psychology, no instruction on flow.

this book talks about many many many examples of "flow" but no teachings. Also this book states it is psychology when in fact it is more "psychic" energy. a lot of hum drum efforts to get one to believe is psydo science

A rare phenomena

I've been extremely interested for a very long time in the science of flow, it's even part of my own work and research and will remain so likely the rest of my life. I therefore thought reading this book would be an obvious thing to do. The author, who invented the word "flow", can list doing so a historic achievement. What the book demonstrates is a rare phenomena, probably even unique: That it's possible to invent a new, scientific term of historical proportions, and then write a book about the term that is so uninformative it's impossible to read no matter how intent you were at reading it. You are disappointed more and more until you arrive at a point where you are unable to keep making excuses to yourself for the author, and you have to stop. My previous review was rejected and deleted by Audible/Amazon because it went into detail about how the book was uninformative. You could say, since I copied and pasted what ChatGPT said to confirm all my assertions, that the review I wrote would make anyone reading it, 100% of them, unwilling to buy this book. Instead of writing another review that will be rejected, I will therefore instead refer you, who are reading this, to ChatGPT. Ask "What are the widely known problems with the book "Flow"? You can then read it for yourself. I have quite a few books in my library at Audible. This is my third review. I only review a book when I consider it an assault on the concept of writing a book.