Steven Kotler traces peak experiences from William James and Maslow to modern flow, showing they're the same phenomenology with different names.
He argues these states provide meaning, crush nihilism, and fuel intrinsic motivation.
insights INSIGHT
Flow Is Universal And Repeatable
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's research found flow whenever people perform at their best across cultures and professions.
He defined flow's core features like challenge-skill balance, clear goals, immediate feedback, and autotelic reward.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Danny Way's Great Wall Jump
Kotler recounts Danny Way building the mega-ramp and jumping the Great Wall of China on a shattered ankle to illustrate flow enabling impossible feats.
Way describes flow as silence, slowed time, and peaceful focus that kept him pushing through repeated attempts.
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TODAY´S EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FLOW RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
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“Two days a week in flow you are 1000% more productive than the competition.
It’s for these reasons that Forbes once pointed out that the #1 management metric people need to know, flow state percentage. Which is the amount of time people spend in flow.
“The most important thing though is it’s not just top athletes or big corporations or experts, it’s all of us.” ~ Steven Kotler
ABOUT THE GUEST:
STEVEN KOTLER is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and Founder and Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance.
His books include The Art of Impossible, Stealing Fire, and The Rise of Superman. His work has been translated into over 40 languages and appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, The Harvard Business Review and Forbes.
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