Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding analysis of the creative experience.
Review: Professor Csikszentmihalyi takes a difficult concept and makes it accessible. The ramifications of his work are virtually limitless. We have the power to choose the realities in which we live, and this book offers invaluable insights into creating the optimal reality for each of us. But more than being "inspirational", his work is scientific and critical. A "must read" for the intellectual interested in psychological growth and understanding.
Rating: 
Summary: An inspiring book not only in Transforming Work...
Review: Flow and flow dynamics, dissipative self-organization in complexe systems have attracted me more than 10 years ago. As a Consultant for transforming work and leadership I worked with various insights - also Mihaly's - successfully, but found that there is a "higher non-evolutive" C3-order (Creator, Creation, Creature) that cannot be modelled by simplified darwinian chaos theories. This step however was only possibly by considering what Mihaly is writing about. Thanks to that I joined my partner, Dr. Peter Meier, to further develop his APS Applied Personal Science to model real human systems from their (predictible) outcome!
Rating:
Summary: excellent insight into personal and social motivation
Review: excellent insight into personal and social motivation; a valuable empirical study of happiness
Rating:
Summary: Willie Loman takes up zen philosophy
Review: I enjoyed the first few chapters of this book but became increasingly frustrated with the shallowness of the author's research and thought. He cites many studies by his followers which are bound to prove his point. More seriously, he seems completely unfamiliar with both serious questions about the meaning of life and the serious exploitative meaninglessness of many jobs and pastimes offered to us by late twentieth-century capitalism. Sure, you can find flow while entering data or pushing papers, but is this really how you want to spend your life? Wouldn't you rather be a professor at the University of Chicago, surrounded by disciples whose research validates your own ideas--like Csikszentmihalyi?
Rating:
Summary: One of the most important books of our age
Review: If you've ever wanted to achieve happiness in life -- not just fun or pleasure but true, profound happiness -- you should read this book. Since perhaps no desire than this one is more fundamental to every human being's struggle, it's hard to imagine a more important subject for a book. Csikszentmihalyi's observations, as he notes himself, are nothing new; you can find them in an array of ancient philosophies and religions, especially Eastern ones. But what makes this book so compelling and so important for contemporary readers is that he has arrived at his conclusions through over two decades of scientific research. Therefore, they are endowed with an authority and a clarity of definition which members of our cynical, secular society often find frustratingly lacking in philosophies from other times and other places. At the same time, this scientific dovetailing with the likes of Buddhism and Taoism and other systems of thought lends those "religions" greater substance and relevance for contemporary readers. Some enlightened souls may find the revelations here less than revelatory. Other people may find that they suddenly hear the lyrics that have been sung to them in chorus after chorus by ancient and mystical voices, and will recognize the common truths of those verses for the first time. Those are the ones whose lives will be changed by reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and worthwhile
Review: Ignore any reviews which denegrate Csikszentmihalyi's work as "obvious" or the pop-culture equivalent of Zen. This book has a resonance of validity that can only come from extensive study and contemplation. Understanding WHY and HOW other people fill their lives with meaning and purpose can help clarify your own life. Even if you're unable to find anything in this text that can be applied to yourself, it's no less valid a study than, say, appreciating a leaf for its green-ness or how it floats to earth in the fall. This book is such an examination of one of the most basic driving forces of humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: Pop Zen
Review: If you are familiar with Zen thought, 'Flow' will have a familiar ring to it. Csikszentmihalyi pretty much just condenses and modernizes Zen philosophy, then restates it. Even if I wasn't versed in Zen teachings, 'Flow' would still come across as a little obvious. Of course one's life and happiness is based on one's preception of it. Csikszentmihalyi seems to have one major point to make, then every remaining chapter is just a reiteration of it. The book is easy to read and a little 'pop culturish.' Csikszentmihalyi quotes 'scientific' research, but I'm always wary of an author that cites and summarizes a multitude of studies to prove a point. Things are rarely that clear cut. Any psychological study can be used prove a theory depending on how the results are interpreted. Csikszentmihalyi also starts to get into other fields to help explain flow, such as anthropology. He should stick to things he knows, psychology. If you are already in the 'flow' this book won't let you understand it any better, you already know. If you're unhappy this book will explain to you why the people who are, are. Will reading this book help you achieve happiness? I have my doubts, but you have to start somewhere. If you want to be more challenged and get into the essence of flow, try reading about Zen philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: Every self-knowing person should read this book
Review: For me, this book provided my first insight into how people really become happy. We're happy when we are in flow. Unlike many of the "happy psychology" books that are available, this one feels true. It's also backed up by real research; the author is not a pop psychology dude but a real researcher. (I understand from the university psych community that M.C.'s work may not be universally admired, but that may simply be because it is approachable and understandable by your average educated person.) It's rare to find a book that agrees with both what I think and what I feel. For anyone who wants to have new insights into what makes us feel happy (and who doesn't?), I highly recommend this book. Additionally, I recommend his latest book, Creativity. I would skip much of his second popular book, Finding Flow, which gets into a lot of metaphysical stuff that doesn't agree with either how I feel or how I think. Flow, however, is the key to understanding the rest of his work.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent description, Doctor, where's the prescription?
Review: Professor Csikszentmihalyi has done a great service by distilling his decades of research into happiness and satisfaction into a well constructed single volume. He writes with wit, insight, and character. He vast learning is often evident but never overbearing. The book ultimately fails, however, for it invests all of its considerable power in describing Flow and convincing the reader to seek this optimal experience but does too little to help us on the path toward experiencing it. This flaw is somewhat healed in his later books, but perhaps the key can not be conveyed in print. That is why I am so busy teaching and consulting on the topic.
Rating:
Summary: A pearl!
Review: This is the book to read if you are an athlete, a business person or anybody else who think about your own performance.
| 
