{"id":489,"date":"2007-02-25T11:38:01","date_gmt":"2007-02-25T16:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/?p=489"},"modified":"2007-02-25T11:43:34","modified_gmt":"2007-02-25T16:43:34","slug":"go-with-the-flow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/25\/go-with-the-flow\/","title":{"rendered":"Going with the flOw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flow start up screen<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a snowy-stay-inside day (for us anyway), so you might as well play a game. (Unless, of course, you’re in my Software Design class, in which case you ought to be in the lab working like dogs! :->) Consequently, you might want to check out flOw<\/a>, a free Flash game written as part of Jenova Chen’s MFA thesis.<\/p>\n

OK, the idea of a game as part of someone’s MFA thesis means that this thing is probably either going to suck huge or be pretty cool, and while I haven’t played a lot, I’m leaning towards the pretty cool end of the spectrum. The game is apparently based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow<\/a>. Without having read Chen’s thesis I don’t know exactly what parts of Csikszentmihalyi’s theories are central to the design of the flOw (the game), but it appears from Chen’s mission statement<\/a> that the key concept is the arguably obvious, but sadly oft-ignored, relationship between challenge and ability:<\/p>\n

\nWhen the challenge is greater than our abilities, we become anxious and potentially dead. When the challenge is significantly less than that of which we are worthy, we become bored, and potentially dead.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When the balance between challenge and ability is right, we can enter a state of “flow”, where “we feel that we control the activity, our worries and concerns disappear, our subjective experience of time is altered”.<\/p>\n

\nMaintaining the dynamic balance between abilities and challenge is key to the fun experience in work. That is, keeping it dynamic. Making it possible for anyone to find exactly the right amount of challenge needed to engage exactly those abilities needed to access Flow.Which means that when work is fun we have created complex, but negotiable challenges, challenges that allow the individual to engage or disengage, to work harder or work safer.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And while Chen is using game design to explore these ideas, they apply to lots of activities, including writing, programming, driving (and probably flying), playing an instrument, and juggling. Returning to my aforementioned Software Design students, for example, one of the biggest challenges in teaching that class (and many other courses) is successfully negotiating the transition from small, solo activities to large, challenging, group activities. If the projects remain too small and simple, then at least some students won’t be challenged enough to stay focussed and interested, and while they are unlikely to die in the literal (or game) sense, their grades can certainly tank if they drift too much. On the other hand, if we hand them a massive task and just walk away, many students will be overwhelmed by the challenge, have no idea how to even begin the work, and die. <\/p>\n

According to Csikszentmihalyi, there are at least four pre-requisites for obtaining a sense of flow:<\/p>\n