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thoughandtho t1_j7gl8gh wrote

Reply to comment by FrankDrakman in ‘Flow’, comparable to the Chinese concept of Wu Wei, dissolves our sense of self and transforms our experience of time. It’s an antidote to the modern world’s obsession with multitasking, but finding it depends on balancing the challenge of a task against our skill. by IAI_Admin

I've entered flow (as you describe it) a handful of times when playing beat saber. I didn't know how to describe it, but it was incredible, as sometimes it is very, very fast-paced. And i remember thinking briefly to myself this is incredible, I'm not really even controlling my arms. I've found I can hit it after warming up for 30-40 minutes, but definitely not on demand. It's a pretty awesome feeling.

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TopRamenBinLaden t1_j7h2tf5 wrote

Yea video games and music are two areas where I have personally experienced flow state. Rythym games are super good for that. I have been in a similar state playing Beat Saber and Guitar Hero as well. I also get into that state when I am improvising on guitar. It is always a fascinating state, where you feel like your body just knows better than you do.

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BrendonBootyUrie t1_j7i0kf0 wrote

Yeah I've experienced that too with beat sabre, along with writing and gyming. To me the feeling feels like everything goes silent, there's no internal dialogue, with beat sabre it's almost like a weightlessness and my arms are just doing things while my eyes are watching what's going on almost in slow motion, with writing (technically typing) it feels a lot faster as all I notice is my fingers moving rapidly, the sentence doesn't register in my mind its almost as if my fingers have a mind of their own, gyming is similar to beat sabre, complete silence and absolute focus, no need to think about the movement, my breathing or what number rep I'm up to.

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aBeardOfBees t1_j7jpqgc wrote

I haven't played for a long time but I used to experience flow with the game Dota 2. It is so difficult and all consuming that after a match which could have been anywhere from 30-60 minutes, I'd emerge and realise I'd had almost zero thoughts about anything other than the game in that whole time. It's so deeply relaxing and refreshing.

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why_was_I_not_enough t1_j7kbe83 wrote

Man, this explains why I'm still so drawn to the game after 10 years of playing. That flow state is magical, for those 30-60 minutes everything makes sense, I feel like I belong.

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aBeardOfBees t1_j7kv637 wrote

Yeah, there is a certain magical mix of qualities that an activity has to have to achieve flow. The examples always mention athletes and musicians as discussed above in this thread but video games have it too, but only in some situations. The game has to:

  • Be sufficiently difficult that it demands expertise and mastery to perform well

  • Be fast paced enough that it occupies your entire mind when playing (no room for your mind to wander)

  • Have a continual feedback loop of mastery and focus = reward, from moment to moment. So you are always occupied with doing well right now.

  • Be something you are an 'expert' at, in other words that you can perform the actual mechanics of the game (say, going from intending to cast a spell to casting that spell) without ANY conscious thought, leaving your mind to focus on the higher order mastery of decision making.

The only things that have ever given me this are Dota and Street Fighter!

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