Creativity flow

If you’ve ever become lost in an activity—playing video games, running, or making art—you’ve noticed that you become completely immersed in the present moment, rising to the challenge of the experience without becoming bored, frustrated, or tired. Thoughts about the past, future, and even the self melt away. Time seems to fly by. You’re in the zone. This is the flow state, first described by late Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1970s. Researchers have been chasing the concept ever since, trying to figure out how and why we enter the flow state and how we can get more of this inherently rewarding experience in our everyday lives, in both work and play. Flow is not only an enjoyable state, it is also seen as personally meaningful. “When the self loses itself in a transcendent purpose—whether to write great poetry, craft beautiful furniture, understand the motions of galaxies, or help children be happier—the self becomes largely invulnerable to the fears … [Read more...] about How the Flow State Keeps Us Creative, Focused, and Happy

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Founded in 2009, Expensify is ranked No. 2 among small businesses on the Top Workplaces list , with perhaps the most eye-opening perk. The whole company goes overseas for three weeks in a program they call Off Shore, during which employees work from a beach in Vietnam or a villa in Tuscany. In past years, employees have visited Uruguay, Cambodia, Croatia and Portugal, each time bringing their families, with the company paying the travel expenses. The annual program was on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, but is back this year with a trip to Spain. Nick Tooker joined the marketing team in 2017 and with the recent IPO became head of investor relations. “Traveling internationally, which a lot of people don’t even get to do in life, being able to do that with your co-workers, and see how they are outside of work while still working with them, is kind of a unique experience,” Tooker said. The San Francisco software company, which has nearly 150 employees around the world, … [Read more...] about A ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ workplace at Expensify, where the office is sometimes abroad

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 9 ON THE SEA OF CORTEZ, Mexico - It takes three flights to get to the airport at La Paz and then a 20-minute drive to reach the marina where John Davidson - the actor, singer, talk-show host, nightclub workhorse and all-around icon of American television's three-channel glory days - is living on his boat. I worried that he regretted allowing me to visit. In January, days before I first planned to come, Davidson emailed because a storm threatened to shut down the harbor. As I tried to rebook my flights, he suggested that we just Zoom. "Wouldn't this be a much simpler way, definitely less costly and save you all this trouble," he wrote. After I had boarded Cantante (Spanish for "singer"), the 42-foot trawler he bought sight unseen last year, he came clean about the lingering concerns that had kept him up the previous night awaiting my arrival - that he … [Read more...] about Sailing the high seas with John Davidson, the superstar time forgot

As mainstream cinema becomes increasingly dominated by a select few types of films— superhero extravaganzas , nostalgia-exploiting IP tentpoles , and the occasional precious feel-good indie —the potential for genuine surprise has largely been lost. That’s by design: Studios recognize that the more customers are prepared for what they’ve paid to see and are able to comfortably remain one step ahead of those entertainments, the more likely they are to enjoy them—hence, for example, theatrical trailers and TV commercials that deliberately spoil crucial plot points, thrilling moments, and funny one-liners in advance. Predictability is safe and reliable, and thus the 2022 movie landscape is littered with projects designed to placate more than to shock and astonish . Someone, however, apparently forgot to impart this message to Peter Strickland, the British-born auteur whose feature-length works— Berberian Sound Studio , The Duke of Burgundy , and In Fabric —are … [Read more...] about ‘Flux Gourmet’ Is a Gorgeous Gross-Out Erotic Food Movie That Will Floor You

Even when your job is to dream up the interplanetary adventures of a Norse god, you might still want to run off and play pirates. So during the weeks he was editing “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the Marvel movie that opens on July 8, Taika Waititi , its director and co-writer, would occasionally take weekends off for a different journey. He would get outfitted in a flowing gray wig, matching facial hair and temporary tattoos, and don deliciously fetishistic leather gear to portray Blackbeard, the swashbuckling, loin-kindling buccaneer of the HBO Max comedy series “Our Flag Means Death.” This is admittedly not a bad way to spend your spare time, though Waititi did occasionally fret over the trade-offs. As he explained recently, “Sometimes you’re pissed off at life and you’re like, ‘Why did I say yes to everything? I don’t have a social life — I’m just working.’ But then the thing comes out, you see where the hard work goes and it’s really worth it.” On TV, Waititi, … [Read more...] about What Makes Taika Waititi Run and Run and Run?