Arthur and I were playing soldiers at the weekend. Actually, he was playing, I was taking photos, and doing that not quite playing properly thing that parents tend to do. (Well, I do, Anne is much better at whole-heartedly joining in.)
And I realised how much I envied Arthur's ability to really embrace his game, to dive in, to believe in it and to get into a flow state, really quickly and easily.
I go through life being really pleased with my ironic detachment (carefully cultivated as a teenager) but it stops me having this kind of fun. I've got to get the naive fun back.
Ah, three more posts to see (thanks!)
Russell, how does one (gasp, splutter, cough) institutionalise flow
Posted by: harshal | March 20, 2006 at 01:14 PM
blimey, what a question.
could you? should you? but, if you could, how interesting...
you should proabably ask the computer games industry how to do it. They can build it into games.
Most corporate environments seem designed to block flow just as it gets going.
Posted by: russell | March 20, 2006 at 02:23 PM
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's book seems to suggest this just as well.
Am an avid gamer and enjoy the regular ole music (customised playlists et al..;) like any other odd bloke - engagement value tends to degenerate esp with RPG's (imho entirely!) arcade sims are perhaps slightly better at this?
That book ("Flow") suggests severe rec activity (ho hum, the odd rollick in the haystack, playing a piece of music, or even a runner's high!) - just how do you agency chaps manage it? Perhaps even away days activites could do this?
Posted by: harshal | March 21, 2006 at 07:51 AM