For the casual HN reader, he was the one who recognized and scientifically described the creative state of "flow" [1]
Why would it be of interest for the audience of hackernews? Well, programmers and related fields' mostly creative workers tend to experience the flow, and even though it is hard to explain (or describe, for that matter) most of us agree that it's great to be in.
He didn't just describe the flow state, but also identified the conditions to achieve it. One can modify their experience according to these conditions to enter a flow state. For example, when the problem you're working on is too hard, then first work on a simplified version; or make it harder if it's too easy! When feedback cycle is long, then first make it shorter, e.g., make tests run faster, etc.
I highly recommend reading his book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”.
Summoning that successful kind of creative, productive, free play state of mind is really difficult in software coding job interviews. There's a lot of back and forth, warming up as well as looking up things and experimenting to reach that flow state. Once you're in it, you know you're in it. You've shipped robust apps thanks to it.
Having to explain that almost instinctive process to a complete stranger who has control over your career and income can really hamper or destroy the ability to get into that groove. I've found it really useful to know about flow, what can get it going and when it's just not happening, and most interviews just aren't set up to encourage it. Csikszentmihalyi wrote a shorter book called "Finding Flow" which speaks of creating situations that bring out the best in others and us.
FWIW, I mostly find these interviews useless on almost every aspect, including measuring candidates programming abilities that could contribute the projects/products given company is hiring for.
But it's an interesting aspect anyway, if a candidate ever experienced / aware of flow
I love it how it's ambiguous whether the three minutes or the hour is supposed to be the real time passed in your comment, but according to Csíkszentmihályi both can indicate a flow state.
> One of the most common descriptions of optimal experience is that time no longer seems to pass the way it ordinarily does. The objective, external duration we measure with reference to outside events like night and day, or the orderly progression of clocks, is rendered irrelevant by the rhythms dictated by the activity. Often hours seem to pass by in minutes; in general, most people report that time seems to pass much faster. But occasionally the reverse occurs: Ballet dancers describe how a difficult turn that takes less than a second in real time stretches out for what seems like minutes: "Two things happen. One is that it seems to pass really fast in one sense. After it’s passed, it seems to have passed really fast. I see that it’s 1:00 in the morning, and I say: 'Aha, just a few minutes ago it was 8:00.' But then while I’m dancing... it seems like it’s been much longer than maybe it really was." The safest generalization to make about this phenomenon is to say that during the flow experience the sense of time bears little relation to the passage of time as measured by the absolute convention of the clock.
Strategy video games (Civilization series, SimCity, Total War series, Tycoon games) are right on the knife edge of this. I love the process. I love playing the game. Especially total war. I love conquering my neighboring nations and living out historical fantasies. But the next day, I feel awful.
Why would it be of interest for the audience of hackernews? Well, programmers and related fields' mostly creative workers tend to experience the flow, and even though it is hard to explain (or describe, for that matter) most of us agree that it's great to be in.
[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)