Compasses · 3D
The Flow Compass
When does time vanish and you lose yourself in what you do? Csikszentmihalyi called it flow. It doesn't appear where everything is maxed, but where challenge meets skill, and meaning carries it.
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01
Challenge
The size of the task in front of you.
02
Skill
What you can actually do.
03
Meaning
Whether the thing matters to you.
On the diagonal
Flow lives where challenge meets your skill. Rise above it and it tips into anxiety; stay below and it sinks into boredom. Meaning lifts the fleeting flow of a game into the deep flow of mastery.
After Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow theory.