Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was a guy who was smart enough to go by the first name “Mike.” He was a psychologist and author who came up with the term “flow,” using it to describe the way we humans are when our experience is optimal. Many moons ago, his office was next door to my undergrad advisor’s Human Development office at UChicago. Passing by his doorway regularly, I always greeted him with “Hi Mike.” That’s because I never learned to correctly pronounce his last name (CHEEK-sent-me-HIGH-ee).
One of my college classmates noticed Mike’s obit in the NY Times recently and sent me this link. (Thanks, Cindy!) Excerpts below are taken from that article, just in case you’re averse to clicking and reading the whole thing.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was a Hungarian-born psychologist. He showed how everyone from artists to assembly-line workers can be transported to a state of focused contentment by getting caught in the “flow,” a term he coined and later popularized.
“Mike” was a polymath whose passions for painting, chess playing and rock climbing informed his work on subjects as diverse as the teenage brain and the psychology of interior design. But it was his research into creativity and focus that constituted his life’s work. That made him a public figure after the breakout success of his 1990 book, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.”
“People seem to concentrate best when the demands on them are a bit greater than usual and they are able to give more than usual. If there is too little demand on them, people are bored. If there is too much for them to handle, they get anxious. Flow occurs in that delicate zone between boredom and anxiety….”
He offered a pointed critique of why so many people fail to achieve flow. He cited studies showing that most people prefer meaningful work over mindless downtime. But he argued that Americans in particular had been conditioned to hate their jobs and love passive relaxation.
Above all, he blamed television for the decline in hobbies, avocations and lifelong education. Activities that blend aspects of work and play offer the best opportunity for flow – and, through it, happiness.
Some critics said his finger pointing smacked of snobbery. To this he had a pithy response: “If holding that everyone should have a chance to get the highest quality experience is an elitist notion, so be it. It’s better than resigning oneself to a life of mindless entertainment.”