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Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

by Parker · 340 things on NewTwos

The Psychology of Optimal Experience
A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe
Every health, beauty, money, or power goal is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy
More than anything else, men and women seek happiness
Happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person
People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy
"Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so"
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 must ensue... as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself" - Viktor Frankl
The circuitous path begins with achieving control over the contents of our consciousness
Our perceptions about our lives are the outcome of many forces that shape experience, each having an impact on whether we feel good or bad. Most of these forces are outside our control
The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile
Optimal experiences add up to a sense of mastery, a sense of participation in determining the content of life
Optimal experience is the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it
What would really satisfy people is feeling good about their lives
Because optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity
Everything we experience—joy or pain, interest or boredom—is represented in the mind as information. If we are able to control this information, we can decide what our lives will be like
The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy—or attention— is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action. The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else
These periods of struggling to overcome challenges are what people find to be the most enjoyable times in their lives
A person who has achieved control over psychic energy and has invested it in consciously chosen goals cannot help but grow into a more complex being
By stretching skills, by reaching toward higher challenges, such a person becomes an increasingly extraordinary individual
"Flow" is the way people describe their state of mind when consciousness is harmoniously ordered, and they want to pursue whatever they are doing for its own sake
It is how people respond to stress that determines whether they will profit from misfortune or be miserable
When all experience is joined into a meaningful pattern, a person feels in control of life and feels that it makes sense so there is nothing left to desire
The universe was not created to answer our needs. Frustration is deeply woven into the fabric of life
Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment
The foremost reason that happiness is so hard to achieve is that the universe was not designed with the comfort of human beings in mind
The universe is ont hostile, not yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent
There is not much that we as individuals can do to change the way the universe runs. In our lifetime we exert little influence over the forces that interfere with our well-being. It is prudent not to expect that efforts to change externnal connditions will immediately improve the quality of our lives
No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamenntal consitutionn of their modes of thought
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 the universe
We must learn to achieve mastery over consciousness itself
Religions are only temporary successful attempts to cope with the lack of meaning in life; they are not permanent answers
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 cicumstances
Achievign control over experience requires a drastic change in attitude abbout what is important and what is not
Seeking pleasure is a reflex response built into our genes for the preservation of the species, not for the purpose of our own personal advantage
There is nothinng wrong with following the genetic programminng and relishing the resulting pleasures it provides, as lonng as we recognize them for what they are, and as long as we retainn some control over them when it is necessary to pursue other goals, to which we might decide to assign priority
One must particularly achieve control over instinctual drives to achieve a healthy indpendence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferennces for their ownn ends
It is necessary to work for external goals annd to postpone immediate gratifications, but a person ndoes ont have to be turned into a puppet jerked about by social controls
We must become independennt from the dictates of the body, annd learnn to take charge of what heppens in the mind
Sincne what we experience is reality, we can transform reality to the extent that we influennce what happens in consciousness and thus free ourselves from the threats and blanndishmennts of the outside world
Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them
If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now
The way is through control over consciousness, which in turn leads to control over the quality of experience
Those who take the trouble to gain mastery over what happens in consciousness do live a happier life
The function of consciousness is to represent information about what is happeninng outside and inside the organism in such a way that it can be evaluated and acted upon by the body
With consiousness, we can delibberately weight what the senses tell us, and respond accordingly
A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening "outside," just by changing the contents of consciousness
Transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome. Persevere despite the obstacles and setbacks
Being conscious means specific conscious events (sensations, feelings, thoughts, intentions) are occurring, and we are able to direct their course
Consciousness corresponds to subjectively experienced reality
Consciousness relfects what our senses tell us about what happens inside and outside our bodies, it reflects those changes selectively, actively shaping events, imposing on them a reality of its own, which we call our life: the sum of all we have heard, seen, felt, hoped, and suffered from birth to dealth
When we are thinking about a problem we cannot truly experience happiness or sadness
The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will, to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer
The shape and content of life depend on how attention has been used
Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work it is dissipated
We create ourselves by how we use our attention
Attention is an energy under our control, to do with as we please
Attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience
Psychic disorder (pain, fear, rage, anxiety, jealousy) distracts us and force attention to be diverted to undesirable objects, leaving us no longer free to use it according to our preferences
When the information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals, psychic energy flows effortlessly. There is no need to worry, no reason to question one's adequacy
Optimal experience is a situation in which attention can be freely invested to achieve a person's goals, because there is no disorder to straighten out, no threat for the self to defend against
It's exhilarating to come closer and closer to self-discipline. You make your body go, and everything hurts; then you look back in awe at the self, at what you've done, it just blows your mind. It leads to ecstacy, to self-fulfillment. If you win these battles enough, that battle against yourself, at least for a moment, it becomes easier to win the battles in the world
Only when a person invests equal amounts of psychic energy in differentiation and integration and avoids both selfishness and conformity is the self likely to reflect complexity
It is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were. When we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. Once we taste this joy, we double our efforts to taste it again and the self grows
Flow is important because it makes the present instant more enjoyable, and because it builds the self-confidence that allows us to develop skills and make significant contributions to humankind
Make external conditions match our goals
Change how we experience external conditions to make them fit our goals better
Feeling secure is an important component of happiness
The quality of life does not depend directly on what others think of us or on what we own. The quality of life depends on how we feel about ourselves and about what happens to us
To improve life one must improve the quality of experience
Pleasure is a feeling of contentment that one achieves whenever information in consciousness says that expectations set by biological programs or by social conditioning have been met
Pleasure helps to maintain order, but by itself cannot create new order in consciousness
Enjoyment events occur when a person has only only met some prior expectation or satisfied a need or a desire but also gone beyond what he or she has been programmed to do and achieved something unexpected, perhaps something even unimagined before
It is impossible to enjoy unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity
Without enjoyment life can be endured, and it can even be pleasant. But it can be so only precariously, depending on luck and the cooperation of the external environment. To gain personal control over the quality of ex- perience, however, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out
The phenomenology of enjoyment has eight major components
The experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing
We must be able to concentrate on what we are doing
The concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals
The concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken provides immediate feedback
One acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life
Enjoy- able experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their ac- tions
Concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over
The sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours
He who wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper
When beating the opponent takes precedence in the mind over performing as well as possible, enjoyment tends to disappear. Competition is enjoyable only when it is a means to perfect one’s skills; when it becomes an end in itself, it ceases to be fun
How enjoyable an activity is depends ultimately on its complexity
When all a person’s relevant skills are needed to cope with the challenges of a situation, that person’s attention is completely absorbed by the activity. There is no excess psychic energy left over to process any information but what the activity offers. All the attention is concentrated on the relevant stimuli
People become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic; they stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing
Your concentration is very complete. Your mind isn’t wandering, you are not thinking of something else; you are totally involved in what you are do- ing.... Your energy is flowing very smoothly. You feel relaxed, comfortable, and energetic
Flow: seemingly effortless movement
In normal life, we keep interrupting what we do with doubts and questions. “Why am I doing this? Should I perhaps be doing something else?” Repeatedly we question the necessity of our actions, and evaluate critically the reasons for carrying them out. But in flow there is no need to reflect, because the action carries us forward as if by magic
Unless a person learns to set goals and to recognize and gauge feedback in such activities, she will not enjoy them
Some people have fragile selves that need constant reassurance, and for them the only information that counts is winning in a competitive situation. Others have invested so much in being liked that the only feedback they take into account is approval and admiration
When you experience flow, you are able to forget all the unpleasant aspects of life
Enjoyable activities require a complete focusing of attention on the task at hand
In normal everyday existence, we are the prey of thoughts and worries intruding unwanted in consciousness
In normal life we spend so much time thinking about our own self
“It’s a Zen feeling, like meditation or concentration. One thing you’re after is the one-pointedness of mind. You can get your ego mixed up with climbing in all sorts of ways and it isn’t necessarily enlightening. But when things become automatic, it’s like an egoless thing, in a way. Somehow the right thing is done without you ever thinking about it or doing anything at all.... It just happens. And yet you’re more concentrated.”
Preoccupation with the self consumes psychic energy because in everyday life we often feel threatened. Whenever we are threatened we need to bring the image we have of ourselves back into awareness, so we can find out whether or not the threat is serious, and how we should meet it
So loss of self-consciousness does not involve a loss of self, and certainly not a loss of consciousness, but rather, only a loss of consciousness of the self. What slips below the threshold of awareness is the concept of self, the information we use to represent to ourselves who we are. And being able to forget temporarily who we are seems to be very enjoyable. When not preoccupied with our selves, we actually have a chance to expand the concept of who we are. Loss of self-consciousness can lead to self-transcend- ence, to a feeling that the boundaries of our being have been pushed for- ward
When a person invests all her psychic energy into an interaction she in effect becomes part of a system of action greater than what the individual self had been before. This system takes its form from the rules of the activity; its energy comes from the person’s attention. But it is a real system—subjectively as real as being part of a family, a corporation, or a team—and the self that is part of it ex- pands its boundaries and becomes more complex than what it had been
This growth of the self occurs only if the interaction is an enjoyable one, that is, if it offers nontrivial opportunities for action and requires a constant perfection of skills
In flow a person is challenged to do her best, and must constantly improve her skills. At the time, she doesn’t have the opportunity to reflect on what this means in terms of the self—if she did allow herself to become self-conscious, the experience could not have been very deep. But afterward, when the activity is over and self- consciousness has a chance to resume, the self that the person reflects upon is not the same self that existed before the flow experience: it is now en- riched by new skills and fresh achievements
Although it seems likely that losing track of the clock is not one of the major elements of enjoyment, freedom from the tyranny of time does add to the exhilaration we feel during a state of complete involvement
The key element of an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself. The activity that consumes us becomes intrinsically rewarding
“It is so enjoyable that I would do it even if I didn’t have to.”
The term “autotelic” derives from two Greek words, auto meaning self, and telos meaning goal. It refers to a self-contained activity, one that is done not with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward. Playing the stock market in order to make money is not an autotelic experience; but playing it in order to prove one’s skill at foretelling future trends is—even though the outcome in terms of dollars and cents is exactly the same
Often children—and adults—need external incentives to take the first steps in an activity that requires a difficult restructuring of attention. Most enjoyable activities are not natural; they demand an effort that initially one is reluctant to make. But once the interaction starts to provide feedback to the person’s skills, it usually begins to be intrinsically rewarding
The autotelic experience, or flow, lifts the course of life to a different level. Alienation gives way to involvement, enjoyment replaces boredom, helplessness turns into a feeling of control, and psychic energy works to reinforce the sense of self, instead of being lost in the service of external goals
When experience is intrinsically rewarding life is justified in the present, instead of being held hostage to a hypothetical future gain
Nothing in the world is entirely positive; every power can be misused
Energy is power, but power is only a means. The goals to which it is applied can make life either richer or more painful
The flow experience, like everything else, is not “good” in an absolute sense. It is good only in that it has the potential to make life more rich, in- tense, and meaningful; it is good because it increases the strength and complexity of the self. But whether the consequence of any particular in- stance of flow is good in a larger sense needs to be discussed and evaluated in terms of more inclusive social criteria
It is an illusion to believe that any solution is beneficial for all people and all times; no human achievement can be taken as the final word
We must constantly reevaluate what we do, lest habits and past wisdom blind us to new possibilities
Water can be both good and bad, useful and dangerous. To the danger, however, a remedy has been found: learning to swim
Learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people’s chances to enjoy theirs
Common characteristics of optimal experience: a sense that one’s skills are adequate to cope with the challenges at hand, in a goal-directed, rule-bound action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing. Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant, or to worry about problems. Self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time be- comes distorted. An activity that produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, with little concern for what they will get out of it, even when it is difficult, or dangerous
Each person seeks is to actualize her potential, and this task is made easier when others force us to do our best. Of course, competition improves experience only as long as attention is focused primarily on the activity it- self. If extrinsic goals—such as beating the opponent, wanting to impress an audience, or obtaining a big professional contract—are what one is concerned about, then competition is likely to become a distraction, rather than an incentive to focus consciousness on what is happening
Consciousness cannot be expanded; all we can do is shuffle its content, which gives us the impression of having broadened it somehow. The price of most artificially induced alterations, however, is that we lose control over that very consciousness we were supposed to expand
Cultures are defensive constructions against chaos, designed to reduce the impact of randomness on experience
When a person cannot control psychic energy, neither learning nor true enjoyment is possible
A self-centered individual is usually not self-conscious, but instead evaluates every bit of information only in terms of how it relates to her desires
Anomie: When it is no longer clear what is permitted and what is not, when it is uncertain what public opinion values, behavior becomes erratic and meaningless
Alienation: a condition in which people are constrained by the social system to act in ways that go against their goals
For people who have learned to control consciousness focusing attention is relatively effortless, because they can shut off all mental processes but the relevant ones
The family context promoting optimal experience could be described as having five characteristics
Clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them—goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous
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
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 con- sequences
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
Challenge, or the parents’ dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children
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
The most important trait of survivors is a “nonself-conscious individualism,” or a strongly directed purpose that is not self-seeking. People who have that quality are bent on doing their best in all circumstances, yet they are not concerned primarily with advancing their own interests. Because they are intrinsically motivated in their actions, they are not easily disturbed by external threats. With enough psychic energy free to observe and analyze their surroundings objectively, they have a better chance of discovering in them new opportunities for action
Without interest in the world, a desire to be actively related to it, a person becomes isolated into himself
“Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.”
When we are unhappy, depressed, or bored we have an easy remedy at hand: to use the body for all it is worth
Few learn to move with the grace of an acrobat, see with the fresh eye of an artist, feel the joy of an athlete who breaks his own record, taste with the subtlety of a connoisseur, or love with a skill that lifts sex into a form of art. Because these opportunities are easily within reach, the easiest step toward improving the quality of life consists in simply learning to control the body and its senses
If the functions of the body are left to atrophy, the quality of life becomes merely adequate, and for some even dismal. But if one takes control of what the body can do, and learns to impose order on physical sensations, entropy yields to a sense of enjoyable harmony in consciousness
The purest form of athletics, and sports in general, is to break through the limitations of what the body can accomplish
The Latin motto of the modern Olympic games—Altius, citius, fortius—is a good, if incomplete summary of how the body can experience flow
Altius—higher
Icarus, who had wings fashioned so he could reach the sun
Every person, no matter how unfit he or she is, can rise a little higher, go a little faster, and grow to be a little stronger. The joy of surpassing the limits of the body is open to all
The essential steps in this process are:
to set an overall goal, and as many subgoals as are realistically feasible
to find ways of measuring progress in terms of the goals chosen
to keep concentrating on what one is doing, and to keep making finer and finer distinctions in the challenges involved in the activity
to develop the skills necessary to interact with the opportunities available
to keep raising the stakes if the activity becomes boring
On the other hand, the hundreds of sophisticated forms of sport and body culture currently available may not be enjoyable at all if one approaches them with the attitude that one must take part in them because they are fashionable, or simply because they are good for one’s health. Many people get caught up in a treadmill of physical activity over which they end up having little control, feeling duty bound to exercise but not having any fun doing it
Enjoyment does not depend on what you do, but rather on how you do it
People were happiest when they were just talking to one another, when they gardened, knitted, or were involved in a hobby; all of these activities require few material resources, but they demand a relatively high investment of psychic energy. Leisure that uses up external resources, however, often requires less attention, and as a consequence it generally provides less memorable rewards
“You move about and try to express yourself in terms of those motions. That’s where it’s at. It’s a body language kind of communicative medium, in a way.... When it’s going good, I’m really expressing myself well in terms of the music and in terms of the people that are out there.”
The popularity of charades as a parlor game is due to the fact that it allows people to shed for a time their customary identity, and act out different roles
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
Yama, requires that one achieve “restraint” from acts and thoughts that might harm others—false- hood, theft, lust, and avarice
Niyama, involves “obedience,” or the following of ordered routines in cleanliness, study, and obedience to God, all of which help to channel attention into predictable patterns, and hence make attention easier to control
Asana, ways of “sitting” or holding postures for long periods without succumbing to strain or fatigue
Pranayama, or breath control, which aims to relax the body, and stabilizes the rhythm of breath- ing
Pratyahara (“withdrawal”). It involves learning to withdraw attention from outward objects by directing the input of the senses—thus becoming able to see, hear, and feel only what one wishes to admit into awareness
Dharana, or “holding on,” is the ability to concentrate for long periods on a single stimulus, and thus is the mirror image of the earlier stage of pratyahara; first one learns to keep things out of the mind, then one learns to keep them in
Dhyana, is the next step. Here one learns to forget the self in uninterrupted concentration that no longer needs the external stimuli of the preceding phase
Samadhi, the last stage of “self-collec- tedness,” when the meditator and the object of meditation become as one
Giving up the self with its instincts, habits, and desires is so unnatural an act that only someone supremely in control can accomplish it
Instead of focusing exclusively on physical performance, as Western martial arts do, the Eastern variety is directed toward improving the mental and spiritual state of the practitioner
without cultiv- ating the necessary skills, one cannot expect to take true enjoyment in a pursuit
Music, which is organized auditory information, helps organize the mind that attends to it, and therefore reduces psychic entropy, or the disorder we experience when random information interferes with goals. Listening to music wards off boredom and anxiety, and when seriously attended to, it can induce flow experiences
Any sound can be be a source of enjoyment if attended to properly
To transform the biological necessity of feeding into a flow experience, one must begin by paying attention to what one eats
Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. They become rigid and defensive, and their self stops growing. Only through freely chosen discip- line can life be enjoyed, and still kept within the bounds of reason. If a person learns to control his instinctual desires, not because he has to, but because he wants to, he can enjoy himself without becoming addicted
Wonder—which is the seed of knowledge—is the re- flection of the purest form of pleasure
“Life without memory is no life at all.... our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing.”
A person is also a much more cherished companion, because she can share the information in her mind, and thus help bring order into the consciousness of those with whom she interacts
If you decide what you would like to have in memory, the information will be under your control, and the whole process of learning by heart will become a pleasant task, instead of a chore imposed from outside
The simplest ordering system is to give names to things; the words we invent transform discrete events into universal categories
Philosophy and science were invented and flourished because thinking is pleasurable
Every creative step is interpreted as the product of extrinsic forces, whether they be wars, demographic pressures, territorial ambitions, market conditions, technological necessity, or the struggle for class supremacy
Great thinkers have always been motivated by the enjoyment of thinking rather than by the material rewards that could be gained by it
“It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new”; “Happiness does not reside in strength or money; it lies in rightness and many-sidedness”
Not surprisingly, some of his more enlightened contemporaries concluded that Democritus had a cheerful disposition, and said that he “called Cheerfulness, and often Confidence, that is a mind devoid of fear, the highest good.” In other words, he enjoyed life because he had learned to control his consciousness
Playing with ideas is extremely exhilarating. Not only philosophy but the emergence of new scientific ideas is fueled by the enjoy- ment one obtains from creating a new way to describe reality. The tools that make the flow of thought possible are common property, and consist of the knowledge recorded in books available in schools and libraries. A person who becomes familiar with the conventions of poetry, or the rules of calculus, can subsequently grow independent of external stimulation. She can generate ordered trains of thought regardless of what is happening in external reality. When a person has learned a symbolic system well enough to use it, she has established a portable, self-contained world within the mind
People without an internalized symbolic system can all too easily become captives of the media
If we have become dependent on television, on drugs, and on facile calls to political or religious salvation, it is because we have so little to fall back on, so few internal rules to keep our mind from being taken over by those who claim to have the answers. Without the capacity to provide its own information, the mind drifts into randomness. It is within each person’s power to decide whether its order will be restored from the outside, in ways over which we have no control, or whether the order will be the result of an internal pattern that grows organically from our skills and knowledge
It could be argued that the main function of conversation is not to get things accomplished, but to improve the quality of experience
Talking well enriches every interaction, and it is a skill that can be learned by everyone
The point of writing is to create information, not simply to pass it along
Writing be- comes a therapy for shaping some order among the confusion of feelings
Knowledge that is seen to be controlled from the outside is acquired with reluctance, and it brings no joy. But as soon as a person decides which aspects of the past are compelling, and decides to pursue them, focusing on the sources and the details that are personally meaningful, and recording findings in a personal style, then learning history can become a full-fledged flow experience
Breakthroughs in science still depend primarily on the resources of a single mind
For centuries great scientists did their work as a hobby, because they were fascinated with the methods they had invented, rather than be- cause they had jobs to do and fat government grants to spend
They simply did what they enjoyed doing
There is no better reason for doing science than the sense of order it brings to the mind of the seeker
“Philosophy” used to mean “love of wisdom,” and people devoted their lives to it for that reason
As in all other branches of learning, the first step after deciding what area one wants to pursue is to learn what others have thought about the matter. By reading, talking, and listening selectively one can form an idea of what the “state of the art” in the field is. Again, the importance of per- sonally taking control of the direction of learning from the very first steps cannot be stressed enough. If a person feels coerced to read a certain book, to follow a given course because that is supposed to be the way to do it, learning will go against the grain. But if the decision is to take that same route because of an inner feeling of rightness, the learning will be relatively effortless and enjoyable
Someone interested in the basic charac- teristics of reality may drift toward ontology and read Wolff, Kant, Husserl, and Heidegger
Another person more puzzled by questions of right and wrong would take up ethics and learn about the moral philosophy of Aris- totle, Aquinas, Spinoza, and Nietzsche

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