Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes:
Cultures are defensive constructions against chaos, designed to reduce the impact of randomness on experience. They prescribe norms, evolve goals, and build beliefs that help us tackle the challenges of existence. In so doing they must rule out many alternative goals and beliefs, and thereby limit possibilities; but this channeling of attention to a limited set of goals and means is what allows effortless action within self-created boundaries.Flow being what Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister describe as a highly productive state of concentration.
When a culture succeeds in evolving a set of goals and rules so compelling and so well matched to the skills of the population, its members are able to experience flow with unusual frequency and intensity.
The trouble is, without some randomness things move too slowly and ultimately the culture stagnates and people get pickled. Limiting options, ruling out alternatives and imposing artificial constraints won’t help you adapt and respond to change more quickly and innovate. And again, the things can stagnate.
With too much randomness it’s difficult to retain focus and everything becomes a knee-jerk reaction. It feels like a state of perpetual change and thrashing sets in crippling your ability to get things done. People burn out.
A balance meeds to be found to achieve flow .
