

Explaining Flow to non-geeks - sh1mmer
http://kid666.com/2008/12/04/explaining-flow-to-non-geeks/

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RiderOfGiraffes
He seems to mention that his wife paints. So does mine, and she understands
the idea of flow because it happens when painting. Or writing. Or playing the
violin. Or designing.

In fact, flow happens in _loads_ of places, and isn't unique to geeks or
programming.

To the author: get a life, and learn other stuff. Flow is common, even if not
always understood or appreciated.

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DanielStraight
Why does the author think flow is a hard concept to grasp or something
restricted to geeks? Basic rule of getting people to understand you: Don't
assume they're too stupid to do so.

~~~
frossie
Well, in this case the author seemed to have some personal evidence that his
plight was not being understood.

One thing I have recently noticed is how disrespectful people are to kids in
flow. I'll see a little kid really engrossed in an activity, completely in the
zone, and the parent will go "Okay time to go!" and yank them right out. And
then people complain about short concentration spans...

~~~
DanielStraight
Does he?

The author says:

"I realised the main problem was that she just didn’t understand why the
little distractions matter."

 _He_ realized. He didn't ask her. She didn't say, "I just don't get this flow
thing." And he admits he was being a jerk. Maybe the main problem wasn't that
she didn't understand flow. Maybe the real problem is that he was being a
jerk.

I'm not saying it's one or the other. I'm saying we don't know. Even though we
don't know, the author wants to assume that non-geeks just don't understand
flow unless it's explain to them, _even though it's a common phenomenon in all
fields_ as the author alludes to by giving not one, but two analogies.

~~~
sh1mmer
The being a jerk was unconnected to my wife's lack of understanding of flow.

I was grumpy and I snapped at her, that's uncool.

The point of the post was that I wanted her to understand why it's important
to let someone to achieve deep concentration when they are programming.

When people don't commonly do activities that require that deep concentration
they don't understand why small distractions are a problem. The point is not
the understanding of the concept of flow, per se, but connecting it to a
geek's ability to output.

