Go With The Flow (Wired, interview by John Geirland)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi · c. 1996

The piece opens with

A website that promotes flow should be built like a gourmet meal, but most are built like a cafeteria

Their wordsA Web site that promotes flow is like a gourmet meal. You start off with the appetizers, move on to the salads and entrées, and build toward dessert. Unfortunately, most sites are built like a cafeteria.

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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
A website that promotes flow should be built like a gourmet meal, but most are built like a cafeteria

Their wordsA Web site that promotes flow is like a gourmet meal. You start off with the appetizers, move on to the salads and entrées, and build toward dessert. Unfortunately, most sites are built like a cafeteria.
Our reading
Clear, hierarchical goals turn a random walk into a chase

Their wordsGoals transform a random walk into a chase. You need clear goals that fit into a hierarchy, with little goals that build toward more meaningful, higher-level goals.
Our reading
People in flow are probably more critical, not more easily influenced, since flow must be challenging

Their wordsActually, they're probably more critical. A flow experience has got to be challenging. Anything that is not up to par is going to be irritating or ignored.
Our reading
Pushing complexity further means using all our ways of taking in information, not all of them rational

Their wordsWe are still a multimedia organism. If we want to push the envelope of complexity further, we have to use all of our devices for accessing information - not all of which are rational.
Our reading
Television does not give children physical evidence of cause and effect

Their wordsOne problem television poses is that it doesn't provide children with the physical evidence of cause and effect.
Our reading
Online communities are easy to drop out of and need a common interest or ideology to have leverage

Their wordsOn the other hand, online communities are easy to create, but they are also easy to ignore and drop out of. There has to be a common business interest or ideology before an online community can have much leverage.
Our reading
The Net may not produce a more complex vision of reality, because what becomes too easy becomes sloppy

Their wordsBut I'm still fighting the notion that the Net is really going to result in a more complex vision of reality. When things become too easy, they also end up becoming more sloppy.

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