心流的概念，即使没看过书，也在很多不同的方面有所耳闻。用一个词来解释心流就是，全神贯注。全神贯注看似是一个简单的，我们都可以做到的事情，但实际上并非如此。
就在构思这篇文章的时候，笔者就会有若干次走神，比如抬手看看自己的指甲，比如想一下今天晚上要吃什么。我们是如此容易被分散注意力，以至于要真正做到心流，是一件相对奢侈的事情。
为什么需要心流？
因为是将我们的注意力从无序向有序调整的标志，我们的生活在不断的建立秩序，物质上我们买房买车，人际上我们组建家庭。秩序是重要的，但秩序不是目标，秩序是为了能达成更多事情。
当我们想要团结时，一般会说，力要往一处使。对于一个个体来说情况也类似，如何把自己的精神力量，也就是注意力，往一处使，是我们每个人内部心理是否“团结”的标志。只有做到了这点，才能往前走，不至于被时间冲走，被别人的想法冲走。
这里内心精神力量的团结，就是心流。
心流在何处？
这个问题也可以转化为，我们更容易将自己的注意力集中在哪里？书中为我们总结了：
- 需要技术有挑战
- 需要同时投入意识和行动
- 有明确的目标和及时的反馈
- 能让参与者逐渐体验到自己在掌控局面
如果一件事情能满足以上条件，那它就更容易让我们进入心流的状态。举例来说，游戏和体育竞技是最容易让我们进入这个状态的。很容易发现，这也是小孩子最喜欢参与的活动，换句话说，这是我们与生俱来就乐众于其中的事情。竞技的胜负，反馈直接，又极具挑战性，目标更是不能再过明确，大家的目的都是希望控制对方。
心流的范围不限于游戏和体育竞技，理论上，心流可以存在于任何我们参与的活动。不过，如果要按容易程度来划分的话，顺序可能会是：性爱，音乐，美食，冒险活动，思考，创造性工作，乏味的工作。
核心观点 - 获得心流是一种能力
如果任何事情，都有人能进入心流状态，且从中有所收获，那只能说，心流是一种因人而异的能力。是否具有这种能力，将决定能否享受正在经历的这一切。
最简单的心流，只需要一些感官刺激。不过感官刺激是会有疲劳的，这种疲劳的结果通常可能是，性爱方向追求猎艳，音乐方向一味追求激烈，美食方向追求昂贵。
一切需要外部刺激来维持的心流，最终都不是持久的。相反，文字，符号，思想，这些抽象的东西，不会随着时间而褪色。所以，要长久的获得心流，最终都要从兽性走向人性，从具象走向抽象。
碎片化阅读与心流
碎片化时间是手机时代的一个重要概念，所有的 App 都想着要占据每个人的碎片化时间，来提升自身产品的使用时长，因而提升它们的价值。好了，问题是，我们的注意力给它们带来了价值，那是否也同样为我们自己带来了价值呢？下面是笔者对于碎片化阅读和碎片化时间的思考。
先说结论，碎片化时间、碎片化阅读不利于心流以及个人成长。此前看到过不少文章说，碎片化阅读可以增长视野，获得更多随机内容，增加我们生活中的可能性，如同社交可以给我们带来的好处。这个构想很好，不过实际情况中，我们的碎片化阅读，更倾向于一种刷的状态，刷的意思是，我们的注意力不断从 A 切换到 B，阅读10行之后再跳出来切换到 C。我们一般把这个刷的过程，当做是茶余饭后的休闲时光，注意力的投入原本就更少，切换的过程让注意力进一步下降，毕竟就算是计算机在多个任务间切换还需要不少开销，人本身就不是一个适合多任务同步的物种，更别说长期处于刷的状态了。
如果来对照下上面的4条心流条件，会发现，碎片化阅读可能最多命中0.5条。
- 首先，碎片化阅读，都是浅阅读，不太需要技巧，没有挑战性
- 其次，既不太需要意识，更不需要具体行动，带入感不强
- 再者，没有明确目标。唯一可能的是，刷朋友圈也许可以得到及时反馈
- 最后，碎片化阅读以及刷这个行为，不会让大家感受到掌控局面，更多感受到的是，哦，别人正在掌控他的局面，甚至在掌控你自己的局面。
所以，我们基本没有办法在碎片化阅读状态下进入心流状态，换句话说，注意力是分散的，因而效率也是低下的。即使当时记住了些什么，因为目的性不强，记忆时间也不会太长。
我们的休闲时间是可悲的，过去被各种集中式的电视剧占据，后来被综艺节目占据，现在又被朋友们占据。就这么少的一丢丢时间，还都不是自己的。完了还要抱怨老是工作加班，没有个人时间。
其实最后总结下来，笔者并不反对碎片化时间，因为很多时候上下班通勤中的碎片化时间不可避免，真正需要避免的是「刷」这件事情。
教育与心流
教育，是我们的世界中，最需要用心流的概念来反思的部分。因为绝大多数教育过程都是违背心流的，都是给学习者造成痛苦的。
在联想教育和心流之间的关系时，笔者最先想到的就是蒙特梭利所提倡的方法，即要为孩子提供独立实践的环境和空间，孩子们自己在实践和学习的过程中会变得非常投入。换句话说，孩子们进入了心流的状态。
从时间维度上说，玩具是在教育方面第一个需要思考的东西。我们可以将玩具进行分类，一部分玩具的功效是用来陪伴，而更多的一部分是用来玩耍。这里主要讨论玩耍类的玩具。如果要问为什么现在的小孩子喜欢乐高，并且相比其它玩具可以玩地长久很多，那原因其实很简单，其实孩子需要的并不是玩具，而是他们自己可以操作的一套工具，并以此来完成一些任务，比如，搭建一座城堡、一列火车。当一件事情、一个玩具变得没有挑战了、没有变数了，那这个玩具就 Game Over 了。
玩具是否容易上手、是否好看，决定了孩子是不是想要。玩具的持续难度升级能力，决定了是否能玩得长久。而这两点，都应该是家长挑选玩具的标准，并以后者为主要条件。
换一个角度来向，所有玩具都应该被家长当做教学用具来进行挑选。而设计游戏过程，变成用玩具来教育孩子的重中之重。所谓游戏化运营的概念在这里是最需要被应用的。
教育，游戏，心流，三者的结合成都，是一个早期教育是否成功的最主要指标。不幸的是，我们儿时得到的教育远不是这样的，多年过去后，我们的孩子在中国是否能得到这样的教育，也需要打一个大大的问号。毕竟，结合知识和游戏，需要教育者具备的素质是很高的。不过好消息是，只要有人能总结出一套游戏教育方法论，其实是会有普适性的。至少能完成一份优质教育中一半的工作。这就好比先有人探路制定路线，完成后培训更多的导游进行讲解。
本书章节梳理
- 解释我们对生活的不满是从哪里来的
- 意识与精神能量的不同使用：无序的涣散和有序的 Flow
- 快乐和享受的区别，更加追求的是享受
- 进入 Flow 的一些环境极端恶劣的例子
- 感官层面可以如何得到 Flow
- 精神层面可以如何得到 Flow
- 工作中的 Flow
- 从孤独切入，阐述家庭和友谊中的 Flow
- 人生悲剧不是 Flow 的障碍
- 锻造自己的目标、决心、和生活意义
书摘
Chapter 1
introdction
It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly.
"Don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it muse ensue... as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself."
In the long run optimal experiences add up to a sense of mastery - or perhaps better, a sense of participation in determining the content of life.
Overview
Frustration is deeply woven to the fabric of life. And whenever some of our needs are temporarily met, we immediately start wishing for more. This chronic dissatisfaction is the second obstacle that stands in the way of contentment.
When people try to achieve happiness on their own, without the support of a faith, they usually seek to maximize pleasures that are either biologically programmed in their genes or are out as attractive by the society in which they live. Wealth, power and sex become the chief goals that give direction to their strivings. But the quality of life cannot be improved this way. Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment.
The roots of discontent
How we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depend directly on how the mind filters and interprets everyday experiences. Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of universe.
Reclaiming Experiences
To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances.
the most effective form of socialization is achieved when people identify so thoroughly with the social order that they no longer can imagine themselves breaking any of its rules.
The most important step in emancipating oneself from social controls is the ability to find rewards in the events of each moment.
Chapter 2
Attention as Psychic Energy
The shape and content of life depend on how attention has been used. Entirely different realities will emerge depending on how it is invested.
Chapter 4
Flow Activities
心流产生的过程
The Autotellic Personality
attentional disorders not only interfere with learning, but effectively rule out the possibility of experiencing flow as well. When a person cannot control psychic energy, neither learning nor true enjoyment is possible.
The family context promoting optimal experience could be described as having five characteristics. The first one is clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them - goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous. The second is centering, or the children's perception that their parents are interested in what they are doing in the present, in their concrete feelings and experiences, rather than being preoccupied with whether they will be getting into a good college or obtaining a well-paying job. Next tis the issue of choice: children feel that they have a variety of possibilities from which to choose, including that of breaking parental rules - as long as they are prepared to face the consequences. The fourth differentiating characteristic is commitment, or the trust that allows the child to feel comfortable enough to set aside the shield of his defenses, and become unselfconsciously involved in whatever he is interested in. And finally there is challenge, or the parents' dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children.
The People of Flow
When adversity threatens to paralyze us, we need to reassert control by finding a new direction in which to invest psychic energy, a direction that lies outside the reach of external forces. When every aspiration is frustrated, a person still must seek a meaningful goal around which to organize the self. Then, even though that person is objectively a slave, subjectively he is free.
He concludes that the most important trait of survivors is a "non-self-conscious individualism"
（这句话要好好理解 non-self-conscious individualism 的含义，目前的理解是，individualism 表示不依赖外界和社会的独立的人，non-self-conscious 表示能将注意力投到可以忘记自己存在的事情上）
Chapter 5
Higher, Faster, Stronger
However, enjoyment, as we have seen, does not depend on what you do, but rather on how you do it.
（深有同感，同样一件事情，不同的人，用不同的心情来做，感受完全不同）
Leisure that uses up external resources, however, often requires less attention, and as a consequence it generally provides less memorable rewards.
Sex as Flow
How to keep love fresh? The answer is the same as it is for any other activity. To be enjoyable, a relationship must become more complex. To become more complex, the partners must discover new potentialities in themselves and in each other. To discover these, they must invest attention in each other - so that they can learn what thoughts and feelings, what dreams reside in their partner's mind.
~
What is important is the general principle: that sexuality, like any other aspect of life, can be made enjoyable if we are willing to take control of it, and cultivate it in the direction of greater complexity.
The Ultimate Control: Yoga and the Martial Arts
ordered system, to achieve this aim, the basic text of Yoga, compiled by Patanjali about fifteen hundred years ago, prescribes eight stages of increasing skills.
Chapter 7
"Work gives man nobility, and turns him into an animal."
~
Variety and challenge, for instance, are in one sense inherent characteristics of jobs, but they also depend on how one perceives opportunities. Ting, Serafina, and Joe saw challenges in tasks that most people would find dull and meaningless. Whether a job has variety or not ultimately depends more on a person's approach to it than on actual working conditions.
（工作的状态和收获，还是要从内心去挖掘。当然，如果有更好的选择，当然是另外一回事）
The Waste of Free Time
The flow experience that results from the use of skills leads to growth; passive entertainment leads nowhere.
~
Most jobs and many leisure activities - especially those involving the passive consumption of mass media - are not designed to make us happy and strong. Their purpose is to make money from someone else.
（说得非常有道理！！点醒梦中人！）
Chapter 8
STUDIES ON FLOW have demonstrated repeatedly that more than anything else, the quality of life depends on two factors: how we experience work, and our relations with other people
（工作和人际关系，占据了我们的绝大部分时间，所以生活质量与其二者密切相关）
The Pain of Loneliness
With nothing to do, the mind is unable to prevent negative thoughts from elbowing their way to center state. And unless one learns to control consciousness, the same situation confronts adults. Worries about one's love life, health, investments, family, and job are always hovering at the periphery of attention, waiting until there is nothing pressing that demands concentration. As soon as the mind is ready to relax, zap! the potential problems that were waiting in the wings take over.
（人只有空下来，就会瞎想，且想的内容多半是负面的）
When physical vigor fails with age, it means that one will be ready to turn one's energies from the mastery of the external world to a deeper exploration of inner reality
~
Primogeniture led to concentration of capital in the lands that used this method, which in turn led to industrialization; whereas equal sharing led to the fragmentation of property and industrial underdevelopment.
（遗产传给长子，使得资产更集中， 更容易产生工业化。相反如果是遗产平分，那就会欠发展。这是从另外一个角度去看一个国家地区能否发展起来的内部机制）
Early emotional security may well be one of the conditions that helps develop an autotelic personality in children. Without this, it is difficult to let go of the self long enough to experience flow.
（Flow 的前提是忘我的投入，但如果小孩儿从小不能感觉到安全感，那他的精力就会无法集中）
Enjoying Friends
Just as with the family, people believe that friendships happen naturally, and if they fail, there is nothing to be done about it but feel sorry for oneself. In adolescence, when so many interests are shared with others and one has great stretches of free time to invest in a relationship, making friends might seem like a spontaneous process. But later in life friendships rarely happen by chance: one must cultivate them as assiduously as one must cultivate a job or a family
Chapter 10
Cultivating Purpose
First, psychic energy is invested in the needs of the organism, and psychic order is equivalent to pleasure. When this level is temporarily achieved, and the person can begin to invest attention in the goals of a community, what is meaningful corresponds to group values - religion, patriotism, and the acceptance and respect of other people provide the parameters of inner order. The next movement of the dialectic brings attention back to the self: having achieved a sense of belonging to a larger human system, the person now feels the challenge of discerning the limits of personal potential. This leads to attempts at self-actualization, to experimentation with different skills, different ideas and disciplines. From this point on the person is ready for the last shift in the redirection of energy: having discovered what one can and, more important, cannot do alone, the ultimate goal merges with a system larger than the person - a cause, an idea, a transcendental entity.
（人的目标有几个阶层，首先是满足自己的生存欲望，满足社会的标准，然后去实现更多人的共同价值，进而再回来挑战自我的极限，更好地认识自己。）
Forging Resolve
But the inevitable consequence of equally attractive choices is uncertianty of purpose
（选择太多，太自由，是很有可能导致迷茫的）
