DenkzeitWiki

Flow

JoelSpolsky
PaulGraham

• Wikipedia:Flow_(psychology)
• Wiki:MentalStateCalledFlow
  • Wiki:PairProgrammingAndFlow

a state where work flows

• Chaotic Flow, Focus, and Interrupts
  • Entering a state of flow
  • Reaching 'flow' to optimize work and play
  • In the Zone: A Biobehavioral Theory of the Flow Experience

being "in the zone"

• http://brokenclay.org/journal/wp_archives/2005/05/27/fun/ --context switching
  
  
• Peopleware
  • http://www.thingoid.com/2002/11/peopleware/
  • http://www.red-mercury.com/finding_flow_in_solitaire.html
    
  
  
• Understanding the Psychology of Programming

Flow takes time to achieve, and it is fragile. If a programmer's flow is interrupted it can take a large amount of time for her to regain the state, sometimes up to an hour. That's an hour of lost productivity to your team. If a programmer is interrupted many times during the day she may never reach this state. Without this state, creativity is crippled.

Flow is fragile but, thankfully, it isn't as fragile as it first seems. Flow can only be broken if an interruption requires a programmer to mentally change contexts.

• Flow: What's worth living for?, quick introduction
  
  
• Coding Flow and Techniques
  • use sidenotes

I’ve been working for years at getting better about interruptions. I love the flow state, but I think that we programmers make it too fragile when we try to keep everything in our head. The thing is that always seems like you are almost there, so the time to write down anything about your stacked task is a waste of time. I’ve been fighting that tendency, with varying degrees of success.

My solution, as you mentioned, is to resist the temptation to do the latest thing in my head right away and to write it down somewhere so that my mind can relax and know that it’s accounted for somewhere.

that’s the key right there. The ability to mentally “relax”, sure that you won’t lose track, leads to a prolongation and enhancement of the flow state.

• Django encourages Flow

Bücher

• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life (Masterminds Series) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi