“If the next generation is to face the future with zest and self-confidence, we must educate them to be original as well as competent” ~Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Der Spaziergang by Marc Chagall
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of my favorite modern thinkers. He studies creativity and positive psychology. He’s most well known for his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience where he deconstructs the experience of being “in the groove” when time flies, tasks are engaging, work is pleasurable, and needs fall away. Good stuff. I’m partial to his book on Creativity, which mostly focuses on innovations in Math and Science. I think this book should be required reading for all 9th graders to inspire them to greatness. I’ll email Obama. Why not? He emails me.
Anyway, Jenova Chen took Csikszentmihalyi’s theory on flow to develop an active Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment for a computer game. Not that any of this detail matters. The game is a fun time waster, and I haven’t posted one of them in a while.
Gary said,
November 18, 2008 at 8:56 pm
That game was fun – but frustrating for me at the same time. I need an easy version to get lost in. But I do like the atmospheric music, which sounds crazy with my sub woofer. It was freakking out my dog because at certain depths it gets really bass-y and it sounded like a spaceship was landing on the house. Also reminds me of this:
http://www.last.fm/music/Isao+Tomita/_/Preludes%252FBook%2BI%252FNo.%2B6%252FFootprints%2Bin%2Bthe%2BSnow%2B%25282000%2BRemastered%2529?autostart
or something from that album…
julieluongo said,
November 18, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Yeah, the music freaked me out too. I have dog-like hearing.
messiestobjects said,
November 19, 2008 at 10:26 am
That game is awesome, but it’s melting my brain. Did you notice there is a link to download it? Then you can play in full screen mode.
julieluongo said,
November 19, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I was doing my sauna meditation and the sea creature was swimming in front of my closed eyes.
MamaPeg is Watching You said,
November 23, 2008 at 5:32 pm
This was a fun game, Julie. Thanks for sharing.
julieluongo said,
November 24, 2008 at 9:49 am
Thanks for checking it out, Peg. You’re always game for the games! Remember the Snowflake Maker?:
http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/
Beyond arousal and control: “Flow” « The Hannibal Blog said,
October 24, 2009 at 5:58 pm
[...] psychologist who might just belong into my growing pantheon of great thinkers. Indeed, quite a few people consider him a great thinker, and he has even received an award called Thinker of the [...]