This book is about what makes life worth living. The creative excitement of the artist at her easel or the scientist in the lab comes as close to the ideal fulfillment as we all hope to, and so rarely do. Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi interviewed more than ninety of possibly the most interesting people in the world - people like actor Ed Asner, authors Robertson Davies and Nadine Gordimer, scientists Jonas Salk and Linus Pauling, and Senator Eugene McCarthy - who have changed the way people in their fields think and work to find out how creativity has been a force in their lives.
In his bestselling book Flow, Professor Csikszentmihalyi explored states of "optimal experience" - those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment - and showed that what makes experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called "flow." Here Professor Csikszentmihalyi builds on his flow theory, profiling individuals who have found ways to make flow a permanent feature of their lives and at the same time have contributed to society and culture.
This book is not so much about the everyday "creativity" that we all experience but the kind of creativity of artists, scientists, and others that can transform our culture and the way we look at the world. By studying the creative lives of exceptional people, Professor Csikszentmihalyi shows us how we can all enhance our everyday lives. His goal is to help us better understand a way of being that is more satisfying and more fulfilling.