Mohandas K. Gandhi’s critique of the modern identification of society with the state was devastating. He believed that it disabled citizens, subjecting mind and body to the control of professional experts when the purpose of a civilization should be to enhance its members’ sense of their own self-reliance. He proposed instead that every human being is a unique personality and participates with the rest of humanity in an encompassing whole. Between these extremes lie proliferating associations of great variety. [...] But what is most relevant to us is his existentialist project. If the world of society and nature is devoid of meaning, each of us is left feeling small, isolated and vulnerable. How do we bridge the gap between a puny self and a vast, unknowable world? The answer is to scale down the world, to scale up the self or a combination of both, so that a meaningful relationship might be established between the two. Gandhi devoted a large part of his philosophy to building up the personal resources of individuals. Our task is to bring this project up to date. ~ From
The Digital Revolution and me by
John Keith Hart
posted by infini
on Jan 9, 2010 -
15 comments
Optimizing Your Brain at Work is a pretty fascinating talk at Google by David Rock about managing your brain's internal states and attention, as well as threat responses with the goal of optimizing information processing. It is a Youtube link, and fairly long (~55min). He also mentions
The Neuroscience of Mindfulness during the talk, so here is a convenient link to that.
posted by Vulpyne
on Dec 3, 2009 -
28 comments
A certain psychologist of Hungarian extraction,
Mihaly Csikszentimihaly--
sounds like stoned sex-crazed muppet: Me High-ee! Chicks sent me highee!--began by monitoring the activities and emotional states of talented adolescent artists with what became known as
experience sampling forms, now available in a new, improved
hi tech version. He found people reported the greatest satisfaction when
actively involved in a challenging task that stretches abilities, to the extent that time, space, and self-awareness become secondary to the accomplishment of the task. He wrote a book about it,
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, which flew off the shelves in the Self Help sections of bookstores everywhere--even though there were no easy steps nor
Idiots Guide To... included beyond an academic enunciation of the parameters involved: the zone of experience in which Flow existed.
[More Within]
posted by y2karl
on Oct 10, 2003 -
22 comments
FLOW is a spiffy flash-animated music video thingamabob, if you're into that kinda thing. Very clickable.
posted by apollonia6
on Mar 10, 2002 -
14 comments
