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Why Can ADHD Be a Flow Advantage? · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

The Science of Doing Your Best Work

Steven Kotler is a bestselling author and the executive director of the Flow Research Collective, where he studies the science of peak performance. Most of us have felt it. Hours disappear, everything else fades away, and the work seems to do itself. But what’s actually happening in those moments, and can you make them happen on purpose? Kotler has spent…

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Notes

  1. What Are the Six Signs of Flow? at 0:13

    Steven Kotler defines flow, the term Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi introduced, as an optimal state of consciousness where people feel their best and perform their… Full answer

  2. Why Keep a Primary Flow Activity? at 5:40

    Steven Kotler calls a primary flow activity the thing a person has done since childhood and still gets lost in. Skiing is his. Full answer

  3. What Is the 4 Percent Flow Sweet Spot? at 9:35

    Steven Kotler says people pay the most attention when the challenge of a task sits just above their skill, a stretch that does not snap. Full answer

  4. Why Can ADHD Be a Flow Advantage? at 15:35

    Steven Kotler treats ADHD as an evolutionary superpower because it is hyper-focus, not an inability to focus. The problem is work you do not care about. Full answer

  5. Why Does Deliberate Play Beat Deliberate Practice? at 23:42

    Steven Kotler says the change that raises learning and peak performance is to be more playful. Full answer

  6. Why Does Frustration Help You Learn? at 32:05

    Steven Kotler says frustration while learning means a person is moving in the right direction, not that they picked the wrong path or should stop. Full answer

  7. What Is the Learning Loop? at 41:09

    Shane Parrish calls the learning loop a path from experience to action. Full answer

  8. Why Do the Best People Learn When Nobody Is Watching? at 50:34

    Shane Parrish says the best people in the world learn in the dark hours. Nobody is watching, there is no boss, and the field does not matter. Full answer

  9. How Did Surfing Help Steven Kotler's Lyme Disease? at 53:24

    Steven Kotler was bitten by a tick on a walk through an arboretum at a friend's wedding on Long Island, then spent three years in bed. Full answer

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