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Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Originally published: New York: Harper & Row, 1990.

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Book Information

Publisher: Harper Perennial.
Publish Date: 07/01/2008
Pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780061339202
ISBN-10: 0061339202
Language: Eng

What We're Saying

October 14, 2010

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February 12, 2010

Mojo: How to Get it, How to Keep it, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith, Hyperion Books, 224 pages, $26. 99, Hardcover, February 2010, ISBN 9781401323271 There are people on this planet who are scary smart, people who look at the world differently and help us see our own lives in a clearer light. Seth Godin is one. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

August 19, 2013

In 1990, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote one of the classic books on creativity, Flow. We opened our tallying of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time with Flow because the book is about optimal experiences, "those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment," and many people either access that feeling or wish to access that feeling at work. In that book, Csikszentmihalyi provides his theory behind the flow state and argues that such an unconscious contentedness is not as unpreditable or fortuitous as most people think. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

November 10, 2014

Nicholas Carr

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August 15, 2014

There is something thrilling about reading accounts that reveal something about how to ignite the creative spark and nurse it into a blaze of genius. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

October 06, 2015

"A creative life is an amplified life. It's a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself." - Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic READ FULL DESCRIPTION

April 17, 2015

Working Toward Happiness

By Sally Haldorson

Like many things, perhaps working hard for happiness makes those moments of happiness, in whatever form, savory rather than just sweet. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 21, 2016

In the second part of our interview with Cal Newport, we ask him what his biggest question about work culture is, and what books have influenced him. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Full Description

"Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . The manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

The bestselling classic that holds the key to unlocking meaning, creativity, peak performance, and true happiness.

Legendary 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 ("the leading researcher into 'flow states'" --Newsweek) 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, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

About the Author

A Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22. Now at Claremont Graduate University, he is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College. He is noted for both his work in the study of happiness and creativity and also for his notoriously difficult name, in terms of pronunciation for non-native speakers of the Hungarian language, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic.

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