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.

====

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.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

The question I've sometimes struggled with in dealing with people who spend a lot of time in flow is this:

Presume that there is some communication which genuinely needs to get through to them, relatively quickly. We're not talking about instant life or death stuff here, but we are talking about, say, asking a question which can't wait half an hour without becoming both irrelevant and a problem.

Leaving them in their flow but attempting to communicate it anyway is, according to your explanation, not going to work; if you try it and get an answer which makes no sense, something or someone's going to get hurt when you try to go implement the answer. Breaking them out of their flow is going to hurt them, and probably also hurt you, because you will get snapped at, which hurts at least many people. I see no third way. Is there *anything* you can do with somebody in flow -- besides drop them entirely out of the pattern of regular life so that you will never need to communicate anything to them -- which will successfully avoid getting somebody hurt? If so, what is it?

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I can think of several worthwhile answers.

1) A gentle interrupt such as an IM window, E-mail (with on screen notice, chime, etc.) or text message . . . this just adds another task to the "to do" queue without breaking the concentration.

2) A physical note left in a mutually agreed place within vision but not blocking the screen; or a designated space on a convenient whiteboard, usually left blank for the purpose.

3) A short verbal phrase that means, "When convenient please pull your head out of the PC and find out what I want. I'll hover nearby." Geek families tend to use this one a lot. Often there is a second shorthand which means "Save state and check in with me, because it's urgent. I'll wait right here." Abuse of the latter can lead to both being ignored.

Phone calls, Nextel chirps, radios and people tapping on your shoulder are instant interrupts. One must answer them regardless of the importance and/or ability to save what one might have been doing.

As for flow, many writers report the same phenomenon.

[mdlbear]

By "hurt" I mean something more like a moment of strong disorientation than anything long-lasting: a mosquito bite rather than a broken leg. If it's urgent, accept that you're likely to be grumped at, understand that it's a reflex rather than something they really mean, grit your teeth, and tap them on the shoulder. It's a lot like interrupting a kid at play (for the same reason) -- they may say "I hate you" or "you don't love me", but you know that you can't take it seriously and they'll still want you to tuck them in at night. The correct response to "!@#$%^, can't you see I'm busy?!" is usually something like "Yes, dear -- You told me to remind you..."

Handing someone a note, or putting it somewhere on the edge of their field of view, may work better than anything verbal: they'll be able to refer to it when they finally notice. My calendar program does this: it beeps and pops up a reminder window in the corner of the screen farthest from where I'm usually typing.

I usually sit where I can hear bits of conversation from the living room; if I hear my name I'll usually manage to pull out of what I was doing, come out, and ask what's going on that I need to know about. I'm gradually training people to understand that if I don't come out and ask, I probably didn't really receive the message.

It's not a matter of "getting somebody hurt" as of "well, you knew that potato was hot when you got it out of the oven." I'm not sure what the emotional equivalent of a potholder is, though.

[aerowolf.livejournal.com]

SMS works wonders.

[mdlbear]

Can't think of anything more likely to make me stomp a cell phone into oblivion. Or leave it off permanently. I do not do text messaging on phones.