Cranky. Old. Man?

So, one of the things that has contributed to me being an educational developer sort instead of a widget maker was this professor I had in college. I call him Professor Gast. I took his class the semester after I'd gotten kicked out of school for academic fail, and thus I had a lot more free time on my hands than normal, as I wasn't allowed to take more than 12 credits and I had to get a 2.5 GPA to not get kicked out again. I took two liberal arts classes, one tech class, and one engineering class.

Not to say liberal arts is easier, but they were easier for me by comparison.

Well this professor turned into an odd combination of a spirit guide and an intellectual guide; see, he was a technological history professor, so he understood the science aspects of what I liked and had none of the resentment towards those that were completely saturated in it. Not only that, he had a very rational way of handling spirituality, which was something I had always been looking for up to that point.

Anyway, since I spent a lot of time at his office hours, talking about things like alpha waves inducing trance states and how much creativity meant to me, he would recommend books to me. And since the only engineering class I had was with probably one of the more "go with the flow and let's discuss things" types of professors in the department, I had way more free time to read.

This is basically just background for the profound influence that learning about flow has had on me.

I hadn't heard of it before then, and now it appears in a lot of things I study for work. Though, granted, most of my study is self-motivated now; if I'm not learning something I feel as if I'm stagnating. But I'm currently reading the book Reality is Broken (which is EXCELLENT, my gaming friends you will LOVE this book) and it talked about flow.

Well, also, a lot of my friends are crafters/makers, or have recently become as such. And it doesn't surprise me, as I tend to make friends with interesting people (not to brag, I just seek out interestingness).

What the connection between crafters and gamers have is something they do that is challenging, provides immediate feedback, and creates a sense of accomplishment. It also can put a person into a flow state.

On of the big themes in Reality is Broken is that most of us (well most of us first world people) don't have meaningful work anymore. Particularly those in the white collar/retail sphere. Busywork is boring, meetings are boring, work is just... boring. The entire movie Office Space is kind of a manifesto against this sort of thing.

Should it be any surprise that there is a resurgence in a "maker" movement, or that World of Warcraft or Farmville are so popular?

I've found myself, on the days where the work bores me (it does sometimes, not everything I get to do is fun and creative, I have to do paperwork sometimes) I daydream or plan out the next thing I want to sew. Or I wonder if the damn dragons are going to kill me in the last dungeon in FFIVDS yet again. If enough people aren't walking past my desk I write fanfic.

Even though I made a videogame ban while college was in session, I still RPed a lot (moreso than now, because I play more games, read more, and now sew, though ladyfriend and I RP at each other at least a little bit when we talk each day). I still escaped to where the work was more meaningful than a grade (truefact; grades have never been enough of a goal for me in classes), an escape to a virtual world where I did meaningful things.

It's just amazing to me how things have fallen into place, and particularly how a professor from a class I took because I had nearly failed out of school would introduce me to a concept that has not only shaped a lot of my free time, but has helped me better understand the kind of work I'm doing and want to continue and improve on.

Amazing the nudges we can get. Anyway, I was just reminded of that and felt the need to ramble.