122 Comments
User's avatar
Steve Provizer's avatar

It's implicit in what you write, but to make another meaning of "conductor" explicit: it's the ability to carry/sustain an electrical current.

Expand full comment
John Knox's avatar

Great point. See my post (later than yours, not sure if that's 'up' or 'down' on your screen).

Expand full comment
Candace Lynn Talmadge's avatar

The flow is another word for grace or chi or prana. Many cultures use a different word for the same thing: that flow of energy that sustains our being. Without that energy flow, nothing would exist. We are always in that flow and at the unconscious (spiritual) level we always know it. The times you write about are when you become aware of it and can sense it physically and emotionally. From my perspective, that flow is God's unconditional love. But others have different names and that's fine by me. Peeling away all the self-imposed junk that keeps me from consciously reveling in the flow every minute of my life has been my life's focus. Go with the flow, or vaya con Dios. Same thing.

Expand full comment
Zafirios Georgilas's avatar

Nikos Kazantzakis was heavily influenced by Henri Bergson. The narrator in Zorba the Greek is impressed by Zorba's ability to get lost in the flow of work, playing the santouri and enjoying life's simple pleasures. We can all learn from Zorba. And he had no apps.

Expand full comment
Patris's avatar

The entire novel is philosophy

Expand full comment
David MacGregor's avatar

So glad to read about the flow

I had an uncanny experience

A year or two ago

I would be writing my book

On Hegel and the American Revolution

And all of a sudden

Involuntarily

My sentences so hard fought

Would dissolve into

Poetry

I assured my daughter who worried

About my scholarship

That poetry was practice for the book

Now things have turned around

In the craziest

Flowest way

Where I can't tell the difference

And poetry

Flows into the book

book flow poetry flow

I stop myself from singing

Into the mic at substack

So flowingly embarrassing

and an affront to musical ears

Even if of interest

To psychiatry and deep politics

I find myself

Hailing once again

The traffic

In the final scene

Of the original

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Expand full comment
Bassling's avatar

This is wonderful, thanks.

Expand full comment
Simon Zabell's avatar

Enjoyed this so much. Thank you for getting into the flow just for our enjoyment.

Expand full comment
David MacGregor's avatar

You are welcome. It was news to me too. The flow thing.

Expand full comment
Patris's avatar

I feel it reading your words. You’ve attained it - and teach it.

Expand full comment
David MacGregor's avatar

Thank you Patris, substack Diotima

Expand full comment
Kevin Colando's avatar

How about the CrAppistocracy?

Expand full comment
Mitch Ritter's avatar

Avant garde theater has a curtain-raising homonym in Krapp's Last Tape!

https://www.escapeintolife.com/essays/krapp-last-tape-beckett/

(As blogs disappear b4 Wiki - here's a safer link\bet on cracking solipsism...:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krapp%27s_Last_Tape

Tio Mitchito

Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers

Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)

Media Discussion List\Looksee

Expand full comment
Woolery's avatar

Video games beg to be scrutinized in this context. They combine a lot of the aspects from all the sources of flow outlined in the piece but video games are heavily monetized and they relentlessly resist disengagement. This is why I think there’s potential in their development for both incredible benefits and harms.

Expand full comment
Bruna's avatar

I was going to comment this and recommend this book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262045506/against-flow/

Expand full comment
Laurence Brevard's avatar

Turning 77 this March, I realize that I have been very blessed.

I have two degrees in electrical engineering but have been programming for money since 1967.

With rare exceptions, my "work" over the years has consistently amazed me in that I actually got paid to do it (generally hardware adjacent technical software , simulation, design representation, etc.). I was also able to escape the two times I wandered into a bad situation but that only comprised about 3 years total out of a 50+ year career.

My civil engineer father used to tell me all the time that he simply did not understand what I did for a living. I used to say he was a CIVIL engineer so I must be a RUDE one! His work was far more concrete than mine. You might say he had to steel himself to go to work at times. His rather weird specialty was the side forces generated by a pile of grain, typically rice.

Anyway... when in a big programming project, I have always had to get into a zone - which I think is what you mean by flow. On rare occasions I have managed to get there while playing music. I remember having a reaction of "Who is doing that?" when hearing myself play. Fascinating.

Meanwhile, in spite of my (CPA) wife of over 40 years dying (complications of dementia) in 2023, I remain remarkably cheerful.

Expand full comment
Ric's avatar

I realize that I have been very blessed.

I only have one engineering degree but have been programming off and on since 1981.

With rare exceptions, my "work" over the years has consistently amazed me in that I actually got paid to do it (generally hardware adjacent technical software , simulation, design representation, etc.). I was also able to escape the one time I wandered into a bad situation but that only comprised about one year total out of a 35+ year career.

My electrical engineer father did not chant ohm but he got a charge out of work.

Anyway, during a programming project I often got into a zone - which I think is what you meant by flow. On rare occasions I have managed to get there while playing music.

Congratulations on your cheerfulness. I am attempting to remain so.

Expand full comment
Laurence Brevard's avatar

Ctrl-C

Ctrl-V

😉

Expand full comment
Dheep''s avatar

You are very fortunate (I remain remarkably cheerful ). My wonderful wife of 35 years passed away approx 3 years ago. After being a musician /recording/vocalist /Commercial & Fine Artist among other things for over 50 years - I can only say - since my wife's passing I have lost my Mojo ,& have not been able to get it back. Playing music has always been something that has gotten me through many difficulties in life.

I believed I would always have it but ...

Expand full comment
Dieter Doggendorf's avatar

In defense of the STEM people, computer programmers often experience flow. I'm speaking from experience. And tech companies have been exploiting this for decades. Programmers experiencing flow will happily pull all nighters and work through weekends. The bosses don't even have to ask.

Expand full comment
Mark Saleski's avatar

Absolutely true. Especially when you've gone through a process of say, redesigning a chunk of the system. The taking apart of the code and putting it all back together really does put you in a flow state. I very seldom pulled all-nighters though, especially as I got older and realized that in the end it would actually slow you down.

Retired now, and painting puts me in this state...without the aching wrists. Ha.

Expand full comment
David Schultz's avatar

Yeah someone described the programmer flow state as a toxic positivity, seemed accurate on multiple levels, maybe because it's so goal oriented and our goals are so often escaping our day jobs, lol.

Expand full comment
Veronika Bond's avatar

Writing can get us into this flow state too. It's the creative flow response to any inner conversation with your creative genius. Thank you for a great article, Ted. And the new word Appistocracy. 💗🙏

Expand full comment
Joseph Fusco's avatar

The key insight here is that the truly healthy flow-inducing activities can't be monetized, and are, therefore, becoming acts of rebellion in our culture.

Expand full comment
David Schultz's avatar

Somewhere in this direction is something interesting though. Trumpet is my first instrument, which I've experienced the flow state of improvisation with, programming my vocation which I've had flow state with, and music production and recording using computer software is the frustrating and awkward child in between. I want more flow state with this awkward child so I can create compositions more naturally, beyond the trumpet solo.

Expand full comment
Alejandro Graciano's avatar

For me, I don't focus on where flow goes, where it is, or who is taking over it. I practice to harness it. I cultivate flow like a houseplant, you have to love it, water it, and even talk to it. I could give many other examples, but the real question is: how can we harness or grow flow or keep in the flow?

For me, it works through fasting and eating the right foods, as well as exercise, body movement, reading, hiking, swimming, and many other activities. I’ve noticed that in order to sustain, keep, or harness flow, I need to practice things that naturally contain flow.

I believe that flow is forever, it’s never truly gone. It’s always there, waiting for you to tap into it.

Expand full comment
Kate Stanton's avatar

I love this! Cool pics. When I was a child, it was the uneven bars. Even the ritual of putting on my grips had me "locked in". I liked beam & floor too, hated vault, but I felt like nothing could touch me on the uneven bars. I was very shy & quiet, but not in this sport. I competed with USAG for nearly 11 years and I often joke that the first thing I want to do in heaven when I die is feel like I did on the uneven bars again :)

Singing freely in my music room with my headphones, DAW open, and ideas even more open--these are all bliss states for me. Typing this out makes me realize I need to create more time for these activities. Thank you for the inspiration.

Expand full comment
Al Basile's avatar

I’m a jazz and blues musician who is also a poet. I met your brother fifteen years ago when I took a workshop with him. The first poem of mine he read was about Jimmy Cobb. This recent poem about my days as a traveling musician, which was published in Brilliant Corners, describes the flow state above that of playing itself in detail (though I call it the Stream).

The Stream

Once or twice a year, amid the endless

run of nightly gigs in different cities,

stunned to exhaustion by the all-night drives,

not sleeping on the bus, bad food, and carrying

equipment into clubs like stevedores,

we’d reach a point where we had energy

enough to play, but nothing else. The blur

in front of us onstage was audience,

unnoticed. All we did was make the notes

and listen to each other and ourselves.

On those rare occasions, always when

we were too tired to think, we caught a stream

that carried us as though in loving hands.

As though we had one mind, we played together

more completely then. It took no effort

like we were leaves, just falling from a tree.

The sound we made moved like an animal.

You didn’t feel that making a mistake

was even possible. It might last half an hour.

And when it finally broke down, everything

was flawed, and back to normal, and the world

was wrong again. Its troubles made you crazy;

you ran a gauntlet every day. You’d suffer it,

just for a chance to get back in the stream.

Expand full comment
Bob Eno's avatar

It took no effort / like we were leaves, just falling from a tree. / The sound we made moved like an animal.

Nice, Mr. Basile!

Expand full comment
Al Basile's avatar

Thank you! This happened fifty years ago, and nothing in my experience since has duplicated the feeling.

Expand full comment
Tom White's avatar

“The dominance of STEM-thinking has left so many of us hollow inside. In a world of intense rationality and digitization, people’s inner lives are gradually destroyed. They are hungry for something deeper, holistic, and more vital than data manipulation can deliver.”

Amen. Hence the importance of making good art, not peddling crappy content: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/art-content

Expand full comment
Abby Johnson's avatar

I've been listening to Stolen Focus by Johann Hari and he touches on this exact point! When you look back on your life, your strongest memories may be of the flow state. How many people can say they do something they're truly passionate about every day of their lives? Those people will be the happiest looking back.

Expand full comment
Ted Grasela's avatar

Erik Hoel published an essay today about the impact of AI on cognitive function and put it in terms of Bloom's taxonomy of critical thinking. It seems that "flow" is the essential state that raises the functioning level of each element of creativity. https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/brain-drain

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Feb 13
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Simon Zabell's avatar

Agree 100%. I have words to the same effect for my teenagers when they want to order food to be delivered.

Expand full comment