I love offbeat, quirky, sometimes dark movies; Dr. Strangelove, The Graduate, Rear Window, Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Brazil, Brother, Where art Thou? Those last two connected to my internal pattern recognition system as I was thinking about this post. I’ll make the connection to the title in a moment.
What are we talking about today? Like many of my recent posts this is about the psychological state of Flow. As a reminder, a Flow State, also known as being in "the zone," is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity where the outside world disappears. In essence, Flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does and loses all sense of space and time. Flow states are known as Autotelic Experiences.
We live lives today that are largely leisurely when compared to those of 150 years ago. The industrial revolution paved the way for where we find ourselves today. The momentum generated from the vast expansion of created wealth over these last 15 decades is almost self-perpetuating at this point. Our problems of today, in the first world, are not ones of survival. Pre-industrial revolution times were damn tough. You’d be lucky if you lived past 45. Half your children would likely predecease you. Your work was hard. Yet, there were pockets of adaptations that had it all figured out. Such as the Luddites.
In modern parlance, Luddites eschew technological advancement. The original Luddites did just that. Over 200 years ago the weavers and textile artisans of the British Isles lived admirable lives of deep satisfaction and flow. Passing down their skills, generation to generation, they were the middle class glue that held society together. Their lives were upended by the machines that were the precursors to steam power and engines, replacing them with low-skilled, low-wage laborers in dismal factories. To ease the transition, the Luddites sought to negotiate conditions similar to those underlying capitalist democracies today: taxes to fund workers’ pensions, a minimum wage, and adherence to minimum labor standards. Bargaining attempts to ease the transition with taxes to fund pensions for the out of work weavers failed and led by the mythical “King Ludd” from the Sherwood Forest, the Luddites took to the sabotaging of their mechanized replacements. They were put down, of course, but this is a lesson on the value a culture places on living an optimized life through flow.
These dreary factory lives continued to propagate. In the late 20’s Harry McClintock wrote the song “The Big Rock Candy Mountains” which was featured in “Brother, where art thou?” (Finally, the connection appears! Sorry for the circuitous route.) Mr McCLintock ran away from home, joined the circus, railroaded in Africa, worked as a seaman, was a mule train packer in the Philippines and was a newsman’s side in China during the Boxer Rebellion. What a life! In one section of the song the singer declares:
There ain't no short-handled shovels
No axes, saws nor picks
I'm goin' to stay
Where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
I’m reminded of my father when I hear that song. A hard working farmer, he, who left the fields for one of those difficult factory jobs. He found flow in the factory, perfecting his simple job to the point where only he could manage the finicky nature of his hydraulic hot metal press. And in his leisure, he found flow in gardening, fishing and hunting. All pursuits that were consistently in his challenge skill sweet spot.
Like the weavers of old, there are a few professions today that I expect will stand the test of time. Perhaps the one that has the most potential flow longevity: plumbing.
In the movie Brazil, we find our main protagonist in a dystopian society where bureaucrats rule the day and plastic surgery and terrorism are commonplace. In the opening scene a master plumber, played by Robert DeNiro, intercepts the lead actors request for a repair in his cookie cutter apartment. DeNiro swoops in like a superhero, because plumbers really control everything in this particular fictional world. Plumbing is perhaps the last flow outpost in this future world. It makes sense to me. More specifically, clandestine, unauthorized, plumbing is the lone outpost.
That snippet of a song from one movie to an obscure character in another, I was enticed to consider the dynamics of work in flow. It’s a special thing, to have your work bring so much joy. I am of the firm opinion that it doesn’t matter what it is that you do, you can align your work to a massively transformative purpose, and through that purpose live a life of optimized experience. It’s not a simple formula, but a process of discovery and clarity that brings you to that point. Sometimes it takes a life to get there. The journey is where it’s at.
Here are a coulee closing thoughts.
Productivity gains have often happened, personally and organizationally, through the setting of goals followed by dogged determination. This works. There is nothing more game changing than persistence. It is the great differentiator. However, it is shirt sighted. If we enjoy what we are doing, productivity improvements accelerate. Today we are motivated by the need for security, of course. But once that is achieved, we are motivated by autonomy, the opportunity for mastery, and alignment with our purpose.
If we consider our jobs something we have to do, at home, or in the field, they devolve into simple exploitation of our hours by others. If we change our perspective and see them as something we get to do, that changes everything.
More to come.
Full Lyrics to “The Big Rock Candy Mountains”
…One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hiking
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning"
… "I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains"
… In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night
… Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
And the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
… The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
… In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
… The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
… Where the rain don't fall
The winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
… In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
… The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
… You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
… In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
The jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again
As soon as you are in
… There ain't no short-handled shovels
No axes, saws nor picks
I'm goin' to stay
Where you sleep all day
… Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
