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Part II: Speed
Article2
Flow
[Time 2]
Know that sensation when you're working out or cranking on a project, and time starts to pass quickly, distractions melt away, and you feel like you're in the zone?
It's a real biological process, with a large and growing body of research dedicated to figuring it out what makes it work. The concept is called flow, a term popularized in the 1990s by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (Bill Clinton is reportedly a fan.) In a new book called The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance, journalist Steven Kotler takes on the latest research on flow through the lens of action and adventure athletics. Kotler writes primarily about flow in high-stakes sports like surfing -- where focus and concentration can be the difference between a tubular ride and a watery death -- but the concept could also have big implications for the business world. Kotler spoke to Fortune about the science behind flow, its potential to boost workplace productivity, and how to get yourself in the zone. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow.
Fortune: Why study flow?
Steven Kotler: When I was 30 years old I got very, very sick. I spent three years in bed. The doctors didn't know what was wrong with me. It was surfing and flow states that brought me back to health. I thought I was losing my mind because I kept having these quasi-mystical experiences out in the waves, and I was a science writer, and I don't have quasi-mystical experiences. In the beginning I thought, What the hell is going on with me? What I learned later is that the neurochemical experiences produced during flow all boost the immune system and reset the nervous system, which is why it helped with an autoimmune condition, and which explained my otherworldly sensationsThe difference was amazing. And I started to realize that the same thing that took me from really sub-optimal -- I was functional for like 10% of the time -- to 80% functional after six months of surfing in frequent flow states, is something that could take somebody who's at normal to higher and higher levels. [355 words]
[Time 4]
Can you define flow?
Flow is an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best. Here's what you need to know: Flow is a spectrum of experience, like any emotion. There are 10 conditions that describe flow psychology, and they include concentration, the loss of self, and the dilation of time -- or when everything slows down or speeds up. You can be in "micro-flow," where there's only a couple of those things, or you can be in "macro-flow." When we talk about people at work getting into flow, they're usually getting into micro-flow. If you've ever lost an afternoon to a great conversation, or gotten so sucked into a work project when everything else goes away, that's flow. The experience goes from there up to these sort of quasi-mystical experiences.
And this is a clinically measurable, physical process? Yes. Flow research started probably in the 1800s. What has happened in the last couple years is that we've gotten very good at measuring the neurobiology. That's partially because George Bush declared the '90s the "Decade of the Brain," and money flooded into neuroscience. So for example, when it feels like your sense of time slows down or speeds up, and your sense of self vanishes -- those sound like new-agey sensations. But we know now that what actually goes on in the brain is something called transient hypofrontality. Transient means temporary, hypo is the opposite of hyper -- it means to slow down or deactivate. And frontality is your prefrontal cortex; it's the part of your brain that houses all your higher executive function. So the old idea about optimal performance is, "Oh, we only use 5% of our brain, and flow must be all of our brain functioning at a maximal level." Turns out that's totally backwards. In flow, huge portions of your prefrontal cortex are turning off. Parts of it start to wink out so you can no longer separate past from present from future. Why does your sense of self vanish? The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that houses your inner critic -- that voice of doubt and disparagement that's always there -- it shuts off in flow. And this concept of becoming one with everything? You hear surfers talk about, "Oh I was one with the wave," and it sounds like absolute nonsense. No, it turns out there's a part of your brain called the right parietal lobe that helps you figure out where you are in space. It helps us separate self from other. In deep flow states, energy goes elsewhere and the right parietal lobe shuts down. So, from a neurological perspective, at that point the brain actually does believe it's one with everything. [453 words]
[Time 4]
What good is all this in the business world?
A study conducted by McKinsey found that the average person spends about 5% of working hours in flow. But if you could increase that to 20%, they estimate that overall workplace productivity would double. That's incredible. That's a crazy statistic. There are 15 flow triggers that are covered in The Rise of Superman. For example, you want a very specific challenge-to-skills ratio. The challenge needs to be 4% greater than the skills you bring to the table. We took that number and ran with it, and tried to test it in various scenarios, and we have found it's very effective. A rich environment is another trigger. A rich environment is a fancy way of saying lots of novelty, lots of complexity, and lots of unpredictability. Google (GOOG) is great at this. They talk about 10x improvement and not 10% improvement. When you're asking for 10x improvement, you're throwing out all the existing assumptions, and you have to start radically new. You're massively increasing the amount of novelty, complexity, and unpredictability in your employees' work life. Risk is also a flow trigger, which is obvious for athletes. But it's not just physical risk. What you're really trying to do is get the brain to release dopamine, which happens when we take physical risk -- as well as an emotional, social, intellectual, or creative risk. Silicon Valley has an advantage here because it gives people space to fail and take those risks.
Say I'm an executive, what's my easy answer for reaching a state of flow?
There's no easy answer, and we always say this is not self-help. I will say that the people who are really good at this, they don't just go for flow at work, they want flow in their off-time, too. You're training the brain, and the more flow you get, the more flow you get.
So what you're saying is, I should take up surfing.
Sure. And creative projects are great -- painting, writing, all that stuff. Creative side projects are really important because they're very common flow triggers. Playing sports helps, and not just action sports. But it's important to remember these neurochemicals are potent and addictive, and this can be dangerous stuff. It's not a quick fix. And it's not guaranteed. You can build your environment around these 15 flow triggers, but flow is still a happy accident when it happens. All we can do is make you more accident-prone. [414 words]
Source : FortuneChina
http://www.fortunechina.com/career/c/2014-03/20/content_198139_3.htm
Article3
Seven Ways We’re Tricked By Time
[Time 5] Ever felt like time stands still while you’re waiting for something, or that as you get older, the years slip through your fingertips with much more ease? With swaths of tech around us and virtually everything being available on demand, it’s a very real possibility that our body clocks and perception of time have changed. Time Doesn’t Fly
As the adage goes, “Time flies when we’re having fun”. In reality, though, we know fully well that it does not. Nevertheless, psychologist James J. Kellaris conducted his own experiment to find out whether there’s any truth to the aphorism. Kellaris had people listen to a piece of music they liked, and when he later asked them how much time they thought had passed, the listeners’ estimates were usually longer. Kellaris suggested that when we’re enjoying ourselves, we pay more attention to the event and our minds perceive that as extra time. That’s how we get the saying ‘Lost in the music’. On the other hand, the adage might lend itself to a self-fulfilling prophecy: if we believe that time is meant to fly when we’re having fun, we’re more likely to think we’re enjoying ourselves when it passes faster. We’re Tricked by Tech
As if we didn’t warp time enough on our own, a recent study has suggested that technology, too, is capable of altering our perception of time. In a world where we lead virtual and physical lives, it is hardly surprising that social media sites lend themselves to becoming veritable time sucks. A 2012 survey carried out by the clever folks at Cisco revealed that 60% of 18-30 year-olds check their smartphones compulsively for updates, with each glance taking with it bits and pieces of the day. Stanford University psychologist Dr. Phillip Zimbardo thinks that this newfound obsession with the ‘right now’ moment has altered our idea of time. Having so much information readily available at out fingertips speeds up our internal clock. Likewise, each time we check Facebook or log in to Twitter, we subconsciously note the time, making us more aware of how much of it has passed in our day-to-day habits. Talking to the Huffington Post, Zimbardo said that “Technology makes us impatient for anything that takes more than seconds to achieve.” [411 words]
[Time 6]
Moving in Slow Motion
We’ve all seen thrillers where actors walk away from an explosion in slow motion for dramatic effect, but these slow-mo moments might also be experienced outside the of the silver screen. In life-threatening or dangerous situations, people often say that time seems to slow down, and there’s a fairly logical reason why. In 2007, a group of psychologists carried out a test where people fell 50 meters into a safety net and then were asked about their experience. Aside from being obviously terrified, researchers found that the test subjects recalled the experience as longer that it actually was, largely due to the way our bodies respond to danger. The adrenaline we produce allows us to concentrate better when in a life-threatening situation so that we can stay alive. As a result, everything seems to pass in slow motion because we remember far more details over a short period of time.
Speeding Up With Age
It’s commonly said that as we get older, time passes in the “blink of an eye”. Aside from the part that technology plays in speeding up our understanding of time, another factor affects our perception of time as we get older, and it’s something we can’t really change. When young and fresh-faced, we’re constantly discovering new and exciting things that we’ve not experienced before, and we naturally pay a lot more attention to them. As we get older, though, those “new” experiences grow pale. By extension, time seems to pass more quickly. Interestingly, a study carried out in 1997 by Mangan and Bolinsky went some way to proving that older people really do perceive time differently. While people in their 20’s could guess when three minutes had passed fairly accurately, those in their 60’s overestimated the time elapsed by about 20%, giving some credence to the idea that time really does speed up with age. [336 words]
[ Rest ]
Afternoon Naps
One of the smallest but most enjoyable pleasures in the world is the humble afternoon nap. A quick, 20-minute power nap can revitalize us just enough to carry on with the rest of the day, but any longer than that and our ability to tell the time goes out the window. When we’re tired, our perception of time goes completely off-kilter. That’s because when we’re sleep deprived, our brains just can’t keep up with discerning between short and long stretches of time. The length of time we nap is also key to how our mind keeps time. After 20 minutes of napping, we enter something called slow-wave sleep. If you break the wave mid-way through, it will take a while for you to accurately perceive time again, which is precisely why they call it a 20 minute power nap.
Time Stands Still
Remember watching the clock in high school and waiting for the bell to ring? If it felt like time was standing still, that might be because your brain genuinely thought it was. The “optical” illusion of time standing still is something that happens when our eyes move quickly from one point to another. According to Kielan Yarrow and a whole host of other psychologists, when our gaze fixes suddenly on the second hand of a clock, our perception of time stretches slightly backwards to compensate for that movement. As a result, your mind tells you that you’ve been looking at the second hand for longer, and thus fills in the blank with what it thinks should be there.
Getting Emotional
Many like to think that they’re not ruled by their emotions, but they do affect our bodies more than you think—at least in terms of how we perceive time. At the bottom of a long list of ways in which our brain is constantly finding new ways to trick us, negative emotions in particular can wreak havoc on our time-keeping abilities. While boredom can make time seem to stand still, just about any emotion will change how fast or slow the time goes—especially anxiety.
For a few years now, psychologists have carried out studies on the subject and have concluded that individuals experiencing negative emotions concentrate more on the passing of time than those who are in a good mood, which makes a particularly anxiety-filled moment seem longer. That might explain why after we argue, the room’s tension-ridden atmosphere makes time seem to drag on and on. [431 words]
Source: All That Is Interesting
http://all-that-is-interesting.com/tricked-by-time/3
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发表于 2014-3-26 23:10:21
刚看到第一个的speed 文章时，很产生共鸣，这种flow要是有科学的方法让它多一些，那我们的效率哇卡卡卡卡。
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谢谢呱呱