Flow

[mdlbear]

This will probably, at some point, expand into a "Care and Feeding of Your Geek" article; for now it's just some notes on flow and how it relates. the Wikipedia article defines flow as "the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity." It's often described as "losing oneself" in the activity.

There's more. Go read it. I'll wait.

Most geeky activities -- programming, gaming, art, music, dance, reading -- are enhanced by the kind of active concentration that characterizes flow. Flow, in turn, is often one of the beneficial side-effects of Asperger syndrome, a mild form of which is common among geeks.

There are three things you have to know about flow and your geek.

First, if your geek is concentrating on something, you aren't there. Neither is he. (I'm going to use "he" to refer to your geek because I'm male, and this is partly directed to my keeper wife; adjust as needed.) Your geek may seem to be present; he may even be able to carry on what appears to be a brief conversation. Don't be fooled. Almost all of his mind is lost in what he's doing. Don't be surprised if he doesn't remember a thing you said afterwards.

Second, getting yanked out of a flow state hurts. If you break your geek's concentration, expect to be snapped at. It has nothing to do with you: he'd snap at a dog, his mother, or a phone call saying that he's won the lottery. The sensation, if you haven't felt it yourself, is a lot like being awakened from an exceedingly pleasant dream by a loud noise that can't be immediately identified. Your geek may not even remember what he says at that moment -- he'll be sorry about it, but he really didn't know what he was saying. You may have noticed him walking into lampposts while reading a book, too.

Third, however, is that flow is the reason why geeks often make surprisingly good lovers. Consider the implications of having 100% of his attention on you. If you ask him what he's thinking about, he might not be able to answer. If you ask him why he thought to scratch you just exactly there where you needed it, he probably won't be able to answer that one either. If you ask him to stop, ... never mind; you probably won't want to.

Comments

care and feeding of your... hey!

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

I have to take issue with the use of "geek" here; I self-identify as a geek but flow as you describe it is a very alien experience for me. I recognize the concept (because heh, that little essay describes my husband with such intimate accuracy..) but I think it is probably very specific to programmers rather than a broad geeky trait. And while I'm sure programmers in turn apply it to their geeky pursuits of gaming, music, dance, art reading, I'm not sure I agree that it's a superior approach to those pursuits - ie, I don't think geeks do those things because they're suited to flow, necessarily.

For me my professional life, my musical life, and my personality come from the opposite direction: I am a multi-tasker. I go a little crazy if I am not up to several things at once. I cannot stand to do one thing for hours. I love being interrupted and interrupting people. I bring that to my music and I read six books at once and I open 17 browser windows at once while I compose 3 or 4 emails. I'm still a giant nerd and/or huge geek, just not the kind who would make a good coder. (And well hey, most coders would be terrible pharmacists, because flow is totally impossible in a pharmacy...)

I posit that geeks have many different, er, concentration architectures, of which the intense focus / austism spectrum / deep flow model you describe is just the one common to your subset of geekdom.

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I would be fascinated to read more of your thoughts about flow. I've spent ten years trying to understand it as an outsider through my relationship with my husband. I've figured out when things I say are just not going to hit long-term memory at all and other pragmatical approaches to living with a code monkey, but it's still in many ways a mysterious worldview to me.

Re: care and feeding of your... hey!

[mdlbear]

It's certainly common among programmers, but the Wikipedia article describes flow in a wide range of activities from sports to religion. And I've certainly seen it in other activities, including music, with people who certainly aren't programmers (though in many cases they'd have been good at it if they'd been interested).

And probably shouldn't have implied that it's the only style of geekiness; it just happens to be the only style I'm familiar with and have observed closely (i.e., from the inside).

While I can perform a song without being in a flow state, the results aren't nearly as good as when I'm "on". I'm likely to get distracted and flub a chord change or miss a verse.