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Flow and The Future of Happiness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWcapC-kriY
 Central Claim:
	-  Flow Is necessary to have satisfaction/content in life. Without flow you are simply doing a  task which doesn’t fully comfort oneself.

               - Key Points:
Csikszentmihalyi introduced the concept known as flow. He named it because of the flow of a river, being one with a river. (2:01)
Flow is defined; putting one's mind into an activity which the person doesn’t notice what is going around them or aware of the time. Examples, could be musicians, artists, scientists. (1:55)
There has to be conditions to reach the state of flow. You have to be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. And There must be a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task and one’s perceived skills. (2:33)
You have to make sure the challenge is high and the skill sets you have in the particular area are high as well. Otherwise if the challenge is high and the skill set you posses is low it will cause anxiety instead of Flow. Nerdwriter summarizes that Csikszentmihalyi made a chart explaining what a certain task level with the amount of skill level would result in. (3:04)
             - Connections:
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley introduces a substance called “Soma” which is a hallucination drug. In Chapter 3, Page 53, Mustapha Mond states, “... the perfect drug … Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant.” Mustapha Mond is showing how the people of World State try obtaining “the perfect state”. Similarly people in present time use drugs to escape the real world and try obtaining happiness. Some drug users try stopping the use of drugs which provides the users with temporary happiness. With the use of drugs the users aren’t feeling “flow”. Thus drug addicts use drugs over and over again to obtain happiness which they can’t feel without the drugs. Nerdwriter mentions “having flow you need a set goal”. Taking drugs to feel the happiness won’t give the feeling of accomplishment.
Aldous Huxley describes his Utopian society to have simple and single tasks for individuals. For example Linda explains to John that she only had one job and that was to take care of the embryos. Linda states in chapter 8, “I don’t know much about chemistry. My job was always with the embryos.” (Pg. 130) Linda didn’t know anything, only the task she was assigned. She was programmed to only think about embryos nothing much. In today's world we see Pawn Shop owners who know math equations written by Albert Einstein. Rick Harrison is the individual mentioned above, he features in a T.V. show on the History channel. In Aldous Huxley’s Utopian society each individual was tasked with a single task which he or she was supposed to execute. Linda is a prime example as she doesn’t know much about anything outside of her teachings to become an embryo caretaker. Without other sets of skills, individuals from Brave New World can’t feel content in life. A task which is repeated over and over again will definitely make the task easier. With a task being easy and the skill set being high an individual won’t feel content in life.
The characters of Brave New World have clear set of goals. Characters such as Lenina, Bernard, Linda, and John have clear sets of goal. With clear sets of goal one truly can find flow, without flow the characters can’t find content in life. In chapter 7, Lenina states “I don’t like it,”...... “I don’t like it.” (Pg. 109) Lenina’s goal was to get off the savage reservation, nothing else. With this goal set in place we can see Lenina doesn’t notice anything good about the place. She only notices bad events, such as the snake ritual. Lenina was so into getting off the island she had nothing else in mind. Likewise, Bernard was thinking about leaving his home and going to Iceland on behalf of the D.H.C’s orders. Bernard had a panic attack when him and Lenina where visiting the savage reservation. In chapter 6 Bernard stated, “The matter?” He dropped heavily into a chair. “I’m going to be sent to Iceland.” (Pg. 103) Bernard wanted to enjoy as much as he could before being sent away to Iceland and going to the savage reservation we could see his goal. Bernard didn’t wanted to spectate the savages, which he accomplished. Similarly we set goals to finish tasks more challenging. Likewise Nerdwriter states “he focuses on editing his video, sometimes he even forgets to eat”. Nerdwriter loves editing his videos and when he finishes them he feels a satisfied. I can personally relate as I’ve spent many hours working on my research paper for Mrs. Wagner with clear sets of goal. I wanted to get a B for the marking period (which I did) and also get at least a B on my paper (which I didn’t). With sets of goals you can feel the satisfaction/content in life. After I had finished my paper I was proud of what I had accomplished. Having the feeling of finishing a goal is joyful, giving content in life
From Labour [LABOUR] and Dan Ariely TED Talk on work
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work
Central Claim:
- The creation of an object by one person is more meaningful than others who just judge at the object created.
- Key Points:
Breaking things (powerpoints, lego creations, etc..) takes the joy out of making the specific item. (7:40)
Dan Ariely conducted experiments (lego, paper) to figure out what would happen to someone if the joy of doing a task was taken. Dan concluded that if the person doing the task was acknowledged he would still have joy and determination. In the other hand if the person doing a task wasn’t acknowledged he/she would give less effort, crushing there motivation. (11:30)
Ignoring a person's work is as bad as shredding/destroying a person's work. As it would lead to less effort exerted into finishing a task. (12:08)
- Connections:
In Brave New World, Most of the population was born through a test tube. Examples such as Linda, D.H.C, Bernard, Foster, Lenina, etc.. Differently John was born naturally. Characters like Bernard, and Lenina have less attachments toward their creators. Well their overall  love for those who mean a lot to them. John on the other hand had lots of attachment to the person he loved the most, his mother Linda. John would protect Linda and would weep next to her when she was dying, unlike anyone else in the World State. We see this when the Nurse in chapter 14 states, “ was not accustomed to this kind of thing in visitors.” (Pg. 199) Showing no one cared for those who where going to die. John was a one of a kind and this showed love for Linda, as his mother. In connection Dan Ariely mentions that the creations made are more likely to love the creator then those who are there to judge the creation. John has more attachment to Linda than anyone in his life and that proves Dan’s point.