Member-only story
Get Lost.
With work, we seek shortcuts. With art, we go deeper.
With work, we seek shortcuts.
With art, we go deeper.
When I was about fourteen years of age, I made gaming videos for Youtube.
I had to buy a cube-shaped device that recorded my TV screen so that I could record my gameplay. It wasn’t cheap, believe me.
Over time, I learnt how to edit the videos, too. Everything I needed, I found on Youtube and within myself — free education and a desire to learn.
As I watched tutorials, practised the craft and repeated the cycle, I became aware of something.
I was getting lost in my time; hours would pass without me noticing.
I’d scramble to squeeze in as much as I could before bed and yell “just a minute” each time my mum would call me down for dinner, just to scoff down the meal and run back upstairs.
With the knowledge I have today, I think this is what psychologists would call ‘flow’, a temporally warped mental state that includes complete immersion in a rewarding, enjoyable experience.
