It's an odd feeling: flow is experientially satisfying, but the creeping self-abnegation is worrying. I also notice it takes quite a while to "reset" from this phase, to start hearing myself think again, to feel like less of an automaton.
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I don't experience this feeling when I spend many days back-to-back in flow doing other work: developing an idea, writing, designing. I wonder if it's bc those activities are more creative, involve more reflective thought. Or maybe it's that I'm worse at them—so flow's less deep!
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Also, I haven't noticed this much until last year. Hypotheses: a) didn't happen before b/c I rarely stayed in flow for days at a time working on a team; b) I only notice it now b/c I've become more self aware; c) I only notice it now b/c I value insight more and execution less?
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I have had this experience, fwiw. More generally I’ve observed that my cognition has “modes” that can take 1-3 days to get into, and then 1-3 days to get out of. Chore mode, coding mode, writing mode, meditation mode, creativity mode, … I can’t do more than one of those things
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“Hacker trance” is a known thing, together with the observations that interrupts can force you out of mode and you lose your state and might as well take the rest of the day off.
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And relatedly that a lot of the best hacking may be done in 36-hour nonstop sessions because you can keep the flow going
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I find very different mental modes are required for working out subtle ideas or for writing fiction, e.g. And they too take days of dead time to work myself into, and are fragile once in.
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Most people probably never have the opportunity to experience those sorts of mental states, which are extraordinarily valuable potentially for the world at large as well as enjoyable for oneself.
Frequent nuisance interrupts make them virtually impossible….
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I do almost everything in a kind of diffuse shallow state with many interrupts, and it seems to work for me, but I'm envious of the description of these intense states that are hard to get out of. Almost never experience this and it sounds interesting.
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I seem to substitute inertia for intensity, or something? If I think about something it's pretty guaranteed that it will roll around again and again and again, so over time I will make progress anyway even if every individual action is shallow.
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I spent many years working in that way—I understand what you mean! It’s certainly more convenient in many ways. I’ve found, though, that certain ideas are only accessible and certain projects are only tractable with the momentum that comes from extended flow. It’s non-linear.