My Take | How to go with the flow and not be lost in life
- People need a less romanticised idea about what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow as exclusive to creative artists and scientists and elite athletes, when most of us, by being skilled in something, say a craft, can pursue meaningful tasks, enjoy the moment and be immersed in it
“The Way (Tao) goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. Now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.”
– The story of cook Ting, from the Zhuangzi (quoted with many apologies to vegans)
We are constantly bombarded by sensory information. But according to the famous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, our nervous system can process no more than 110 bits of information per second. If that’s right, whether you multitask or single-task, that’s the threshold to what your brain can register, or the limit of your attention.
That may be why it’s now generally agreed that multitasking is a myth, because it usually degrades your performance. Single-tanking, or focusing your full attention on a single task, still generally delivers better results. And if you are lucky and skilful enough, you may go into what cook Ting has described in the Zhuangzi, or what Csikszentmihalyi has famously called the state of “flow”.
I recently watched a YouTube clip of the Beethoven biopic, Immortal Beloved. In the scene, Beethoven is playing on the piano alone as the haunting melody of the Moonlight Sonata takes shape. He is completely immersed in his music. Unbeknown to him, his lover is hiding behind a doorway and listening. Deeply moved by the melody, she quietly approaches him from behind and puts her hand on his shoulder. He is so surprised and shocked by the rude intrusion he falls off his chair. Furious, he takes off without saying a word.