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Books on creativity,
flow and boredom |
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title
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Synopsis |
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Beyond Boredom and Anxiety
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi |
".
. . they concentrate their attention on a limited stimulus
field, forget personal problems, lose their sense of time
and of themselves, feel competent and in control, and
have a sense of harmony and union with their surroundings
. . . they cease to worry about whether the activity will
be productive or whether it will be rewarded . . . they
have entered a state of flow." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
In a world organized around the assumption that 'serious'
work should be grim and unpleasant, we strive to make
our lives more meaningful. Whether a line worker or a
paper pusher, we find ourselves on a never-ending search
for ways to counteract the boredom, anxiety, and alienation
that our work-oriented society has become. But in this
culture ruled by the pursuit of money, prestige, and pleasure,
there are some individuals willing to give up material
awards for the elusive experience of mere enjoyment. These
are the rock-climbers, the dancers, the chess masters,
and others who have sacrificed all for the power of play-these
are the individuals who have entered the 'state of flow'.
Beyond Boredom and Anxiety offers a timeless introduction
to the concept of flow and the scientific basis behind
it-all through the work of one of the field's great scientists,
Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi. Through real-life examples, discover
how enjoyable activities provide a common experience-a
satisfying, often exhilarating, feeling of creative accomplishment
and heightened functioning-and under what conditions 'serious'
work can also provide this intrinsic enjoyment. |
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Finding Flow: The Psychology
of Engagement With Everyday Life
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi |
Csikszentmihalyi
goes over the nature of what we experience and classifies
them according to the level of challenge vs. the skill
we can bear upon them. He then discusses how we feel when
doing these different types of activities. The two core
chapters cover work and leisure. Csikszentmihalyi shows
how engagement with ones job and pursuing active hobbies
provide more personal satisfaction than passive entertainment
and mere lounging. It is this notion that will clash with
many people's belief in what makes them happy; happiness
being something that Csikszentmihalyi considers a fleeting
emotion and different from true contentment. As has been
noted by the philosopher A.C. Grayling, if we are after
happiness alone, then we can just self-medicate.
Other chapters
examine how relationships are better if you engage in
them, rather than merely meet material obligations to
loved ones, and what kinds of personalities are better
suited to achieving flow. There is a chapter, as well
as some discussion throughout, on how to increase flow
in your own life. This gives the book an additional
self-help angle (which is what the back cover is trying
to market it as.) The final chapter begins with some
light philosophizing and quickly degenerates into an
off-topic discussion of religion, lacking a thesis and
coming across as the ramblings of a stoned first-year
college student. This is unfortunate in that it mars
an otherwise very strong treatment of what constitutes
a good life.
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Creativity: Flow and the Psychology
of Discovery and Invention
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi |
Creativity
is about capturing those moments that make life worth
living. The author's objective is to offer an understanding
of what leads to these moments, be it the excitement of
the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab, so
that knowledge can be used to enrich people's lives. Drawing
on 100 interviews with exceptional people, from biologists
and physicists to politicians and business leaders, poets
and artists, as well as his 30 years of research on the
subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous theory to explore
the creative process. He discusses such ideas as why creative
individuals are often seen as selfish and arrogant, and
why the tortured genius is largely a myth. Most important,
he clearly explains why creativity needs to be cultivated
and is necessary for the future of our country, if not
the world. |
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Lila: An Inquiry Into
Morals
by Robert Pirsig |
After
"Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
(one o/t most succesful cult books of the 70s) Pirsig
presents a surprisingly good sequel which fits into
the cultural frame of the nineties. Against a narrative
setting of another journey, accompanied by an instabile
but fascinating woman (Lila), Pirsig again ponders about
Quality and the question whether Lila has any. Touching
on Northern-American cultural values, mental illness
and Native Indians, the "Metaphysics of Quality"
of the first novel is further developed and elaborated
upon by Pirsig's introduction of a new concept of a
cohesion between Dynamic and Static quality. The author
desribes an authentic and innovating Quality which causes
life to progress within its necessary patterns of static
quality such as tradition and fixed norms. |
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The Creative manager
Finding Inner Wisdom in Uncertain Times
Peter Russell and Roger Evans |
The unprecedented pace of
change demands that we draw upon our creative resources
as never before. This book explores what it really takes
to be creative in the face of complex new challenges.
It is about drawing upon the well of creativity within
each of us, and using it to empower ourselves. Because
the principles it deals with are common to each of us,
it offers information and inspiration to everyone.
More information about the books on evolution and metafysics
(global brain) by Russell and others, click here. |
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A Philosophy
of Boredom
Lars Fr. H. Svendsen |
Although boredom is something that we have all suffered
from at some point in our lives, and has become one of
the central preoccupations of our age, very few of us
can explain precisely what it is. In this book Lars Svendsen
examines the nature of boredom, how it originated, its
history, how and why it afflicts us, and why we cannot
seem to overcome it by any act of will. A diverse and
vague phenomenon, described as anything from 'tame longing
without any particular object' (Schopenhauer), 'a bestial
and indefinable affliction' (Dostoevsky), to 'time's invasion
of your world system' (Joseph Brodsky), boredom allows
many interpretations. In exploring these, Lars Svendsen
brings together observations from philosophy, literature,
psychology, theology and popular culture, examining boredom's
pre-Romantic manifestations in medieval torpor, philosophies
of the subject from Pascal to Nietzsche, and modern related
concepts of alienation and transgression, taking in texts
by Samuel Beckett, J. G. Ballard, Andy Warhol and many
others. He also puts forward an ethics for boredom, discussing
what stance one can adopt towards boredom as well as how
one ought not to do so. This book arose from the author's
attempt to relax and do nothing. Finding this impossible,
he thought it better to do something, so he wrote A Philosophy
of Boredom. A witty and entertaining account that considers
a serious issue, it will appeal to anyone who has ever
felt bored, and wanted to know why. |
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The
Rise of the Creative Class
Richard Florida
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The national bestseller that defines a new economic class
and shows how it is key to the future of our cities. The
Washington Monthly 2002 Annual Political Book Award Winner
The Rise of the Creative Class gives us a provocative
new way to think about why we live as we do today-and
where we might be headed. Weaving storytelling with masses
of new and updated research, Richard Florida traces the
fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly
unrelated changes in American society: the growing role
of creativity in our economy. Just as William Whyte's
1956 classic The Organization Man showed how
the organizational ethos of that age permeated every aspect
of life, Florida describes a society in which the creative
ethos is increasingly dominant. Millions of us are beginning
to work and live much as creative types like artists and
scientists always have-with the result that our values
and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of
where to live, and even our sense and use of time are
changing. Leading the shift are the nearly 38 million
Americans in many diverse fields who create for a living-the
Creative Class. The Creative Class now comprises more
than thirty percent of the entire workforce. Their choices
have already had a huge economic impact. In the future
they will determine how the workplace is organized, what
companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which
cities will thrive or wither. |
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