What are the two strategies C suggests for improving the quality of Life?
What’s his main point about blending those strategies?
What is the distinction between pleasure and enjoyment?
C uses an anecdote about Sr. Orsini to illustrate his point. Have you a similar anecdote?
What were the surprising similarities across experiences?
Describe the golden ratio between skills and challenges.
What does this concept have to do with “Flow”?
What do you know of this experience?
Describe the importance of immediate feedback using a personal experience.
What does C say about situations in which the feedback is less immediate?
What kind of feedback is necessary for the activity to be enjoyable?
How can you control that?
What is the paradox of control?
What is his point about ego and psychic energy?
Compare the examples C offers with your own experience.
What does autotelic mean?
“Most enjoyable activities are not natural; they demand an effort that initially one is reluctant to make. But once the interaction starts to provide feedback to the person’s skills, it usually begins to be intrinsically rewarding.” (pp 68)
How might this relate to school?
“As long as a significant segment of society has few opportunities to encounter meaningful challenges, and few chances to develop the skills necessary to benefit from them, we must expect that violence and crime will attract those who cannot find their way to more complex autotelic experiences.” (pp70)
What observations can you make about the difficulty the general population of the US has in finding “complex autotelic experiences?”
What’s good about “Flow”?
Find, Xerox and Bring to class an article in a periodical (not one from the web but a hard copy periodical or magazine) that is related to Flow. be prepared to share your observations about the author's point of view and C's. You will be turning this article in with your notes. Note: we will be using web resources later in the course but for this assignment it is important that you find a relevant reference in a published text.