Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"?

Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by snide on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @11:14AM (#7592232)

I've heard this guy on NPR and other radio programs promoting his book. While I find the subject fascinating I get distracted by his marketing buzzspeak and branding. Specifically that he dubs his concept "Flow" when it's been more commonly known as "in the zone" for decades. I could come to no reasoning other than his need for a new brandable term. Not a big deal I guess, but overall undermined the work to me.

Having read the book is there something I'm missing in that guess?

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Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by andrewl on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @11:22AM (#7592266)

I don't know if the term flow came before in the zone, but it has been in use for decades. Csikszentmihalyi published a book called Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play in 1975.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by 0161 on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @06:09PM (#7594628)

The OED has a draft entry (2002) for "in the zone" that says its origins are chiefly US sport. Its earliest citation is a 1976 San Francisco Chronicle article about tennis:

Tennis players speak reverently of the mystical atmospheric condition known as ‘The Zone’ Passing shots chip away at the lines, first serves pop in and mistakes simply don't materialize.

The next citation is from 1990, and refers to the more general creative sense.

Performers, surgeons, or creative artists..find that most important parts of their lives occur when they are ‘in the zone’.

Source is the New Age Journal. Notice how it is no longer capitalised.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by snide on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @11:35AM (#7592357)

Thanks for the response. I'll check the book out.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by gtirloni on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @11:42AM (#7592392)

It's unimportant if it's called "flow" or "in the zone".

I'm midway through that book and I find the way he explains it in clear terms actually something very beneficial to how I'm evaluating my experience. I haven't noticed anything "buzzwordy" about it. So far it's one of the books I've highlighted the most and that, in my book, is a good sign. I highly recommend it to any not only wanting to "get in the zone" but understand what that means for your quality of life.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by irickt on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @12:05PM (#7592570)

The original book is without merketing speak. It is a report on his psychological research and is detailed and inspiring. In later years he has "expanded the franchise" to more hyped products.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by markhelo on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @02:07PM (#7593339)

The book is a great read and talks about his research on talking to people. He provides interesting examples of people who you might think do boring jobs but can manage to get in flow and how they do it. Overall, he proposes a theory on how we get in flow and techniques we can use.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you get and stay in the "zone"? by 0161 on Tuesday April 15, 2014 @06:13PM (#7594646)

Csíkszentmihályi termed the concept "flow" because in his interviews in the mid 1970s lots of people used water metaphors, of being borne along by a current, to describe their experience of the state.

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