Peter Flaschner - Passion FTW!

Passion FTW!

Peter Flaschner @flashlightMarch 23, 2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What is passion?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73823441@N00/169622936/

Is it this?

Passion is a force.

Passion is energy.

Passion is hard to define.

wiktionary

passion 1. Any great, powerful emotion, especially love or hate. 2. fervor, determination. 3. An object of passionate love or strong interest.

It started as a hobby, but now my motorbike collection has become my passion.

4. (Christianity) The suffering of Jesus leading up to and during his crucifixion. 5. A play, musical composition or display meant to commemorate the suffering of Jesus.

wiktionary

emotion

1. A person's internal state of being and involuntary, subjective, physiological response to an object or a situation, based in or tied to physical state and sensory feelings.

2. A reaction by an non-human organism with behavioral and physiological elements similar to a person's response.

determination

1. The act of determining, or the state of being determined.

2. Bringing to an end; termination; limit. 3. Direction or tendency to a certain end;

impulsion. 4. The quality of mind which reaches definite

conclusions; decision of character; resoluteness.

5. (countable) The state of decision; a judicial decision, or ending of controversy.

6. (countable) That which is determined upon; result of deliberation; purpose; conclusion formed; fixed resolution.

7. A flow, rush, or tendency to a particular part; as, a determination of blood to the head.

8. (countable) The act, process, or result of any accurate measurement, as of length, volume, weight, intensity, etc.; as, the determination of the ohm or of the wave length of light; the determination of the salt in sea water, or the oxygen in the air.

9. The act of defining a concept or notion by giving its essential constituents.

10. The addition of a differentia to a concept or notion, thus limiting its extent; -- the opposite of generalization.

11. The act of determining the relations of an object, as regards genus and species; the referring of minerals, plants, or animals, to the species to which they belong; classification; as, I am indebted to a friend for the determination of most of these shells.

passion

fervor

1. (US) An intense, heated emotion; passion, ardor.

2. (US) A passionate enthusiasm for some cause. 3. (US) Heat.

Passion is slippery. It’s hard to define.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68845396@N00/89593428/ Malingering

passion 1. Any great, powerful emotion, especially love or hate. 2. fervor, determination. 3. An object of passionate love or strong interest.

It started as a hobby, but now my motorbike collection has become my passion.

4. (Christianity) The suffering of Jesus leading up to and during his crucifixion. 5. A play, musical composition or display meant to commemorate the suffering of Jesus.

Robert J. Vallerand, professor of Psychology at Université de Montreal

Past president of the Canadian Psychological Association

Written over 200 articles, many books, yadda yadda

Runs the Research Laboratory on Social Behavior at Université de Montreal

http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r26710/LRCS/default_en.htm

Dualistic Model of Passion for activities

Where activity refers to something we choose to do.

fight for a causelose 20 poundscollect stamps

Harmonious Passion

Obsessive Passion

Harmonious PassionPeople with a harmonious passion have been found to experience positive emotions such as happiness both during and after engagement in the passionate activity, as well as a better concentration, feelings of being fully absorbed during activity engagement, and report higher levels of well-being .

Eric G. Donahue Mars 2009, Le Panoptiquehttp://www.lepanoptique.com/dev/page-article.php?id=142&theme=sciences&PHPSESSID=a4a95af0376599f177f36d7220433622

Obsessive PassionThose individuals feel like they cannot help but to engage in the activity they love due to the internal forces that control them. Eventually, the passionate activity takes disproportionate importance and interferes with other aspects and activities of the person’s life. As a consequence, obsessive passion has been related to negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, shame) and feelings of guilt, poor concentration, rumination (i.e., difficulty stopping thinking about the activity), and rigid task engagement.

Eric G. Donahue Mars 2009, Le Panoptiquehttp://www.lepanoptique.com/dev/page-article.php?id=142&theme=sciences&PHPSESSID=a4a95af0376599f177f36d7220433622

Harmonious Passion

Obsessive Passion

Passion can develop in two

directions

Good stamp

collector

Evil stamp

collector

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonivc/2363758336/in/set-72157603742415116/

Why is harmonious passion important?

Because it can make us better communicators.

Because it can make us happy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42921300@N00/264814182/ Felix42 contra la censura

Because the world is fucked.

kevindooley http://www.flickr.com/photos/12836528@N00/2808632690/

Harmonious passion as saviour, part 1The Motivator

What’s led us to this?

Human behaviour.

Changing behaviour is

Need strong, consistent internal drive.

We need motivation that can

withstand setbacks.

the driver of this car had just walked away to get gas when a

tractor trailer ran over it...

If we just look at motivation, we’re not looking deep enough.

Motivation grows out of passion.

(not exclusively)

There is a certain QUALITY to motivation that arises from harmonious passion

The problems we face are really big.

We need to think about how to develop our passion for

solving the problems, so that we can have the motivation

to do the hard work.

Passion can be an important tool in helping us out of this mess.

Passion as saviour, part 2The happiness factor

(this is just a hunch.)

(Happiness as well-being, not pleasure)

Happy people do less harm.

Happy people leave a gentler mark.

Happy people spread happiness.

Research has identified a number of correlates with happiness. These include religious involvement,

parenthood, marital status, age, income and proximity to other happy people.

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness

“Passion can fuel motivation, enhance well-being, and provide meaning in everyday life.”

Éric Donahue, Research Laboratory on Social Behavior, Université de Montreal

Passion can lead to happiness.

Deep breath.

So what does this have to do with any of us?

It affects this

particular group in

two ways:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59562171@N00/247249870/http://www.flickr.com/photos/txanoduna/477985347/sizes/o/ Txanoduna

It affects us personally.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7346219@N03/2464804268/ GirLy GirL

I want to be happy.

I want my friends and family to be happy.

I want to be around happy people.

So it’s in my best interest to understand how harmonious passion can lead to happiness so that I can generate it and feed it to you.

What’s more, it’s in my interest for my friends and family to understand harmonious passion so you can generate it and feed it to me.

It affects us professionally.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23356961@N00/4830305/ julieta masina

As designers and web geeks, we have a lot of power.

We are enablers for other people’s passions.

We build websites and tools for our clients, often so that they can pursue their passion.

We provide the means and expertise for people to exercise their passions

This is true for our clients and our clients’ audience.

This is really important, and

usually overlooked.

It means the impact of our

work is exponential

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80122196@N00/4557105/ GustavoG

a) harmonious passion can help improve lives, and

b) harmonious passion can be developed

then we have to accept that we can make a big difference.

We have a tremendous opportunity. If we accept that

Time to get practical:

Let’s look at how passion

develops

Robert J. Vallerand, professor of Psychology at Université de Montreal

Past president of the Canadian Psychological Association

Written over 200 articles, many books, yadda yadda

Runs the Research Laboratory on Social Behavior at Université de Montreal

http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r26710/LRCS/default_en.htm

Dualistic Model of Passion for activities

Harmonious Passion

Obsessive Passion

2007 Presidential Address to the Canadian Psychological Association

On the Psychology of Passion: In Search of What Makes

People’s Lives Most Worth Living

http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r26710/LRCS/papers/vallerandcp2008.pdf

On the development of passion

Three processes are hypothesised to influence the development of passion toward an activity: activity selection, activity valuation, and the type of internalisation of the activity representation in one’s identity.

This is deep stuff.

Three processes are hypothesised to influence the development of

passion toward an activity: activity selection, activity valuation,

and the type of internalisation of the activity representation in one’s

identity.

Activity selection is simply what do I choose to do.

Visit a site, make a purchase, play a game, join a social

network, etc.

As designers, how we present activity options has an impact.

Can the user find the right activity?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14468301@N06/2150870925/ Spiritless Visionary

passion toward an activity: activity selection,

activity valuation, and the type of internalisation of

the activity representation in one’s identity.

activity valuation is the subjective importance given to the activity by the person

Context is critical to activity valuation.

Research has indeed shown that when the object of

interest is highly valued and meaningful, one is inclined

to internalise the valued object, to make it part of

him or herself.

As it relates to design and strategy, we need to be aware that if we give an important element low valuation in it’s presentation, it may affect how our users internalize their experience.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46425925@N00/179019989/ Pulpolux !!!

passion toward an activity: activity selection, activity valuation,

and the type of internalisation of the activity representation in

one’s identity.

Two types of internalization:

Autonomous Controlled

Autonomous

An individual, of his or her own volition, chooses to pursue a thing for the pleasure/challenge/enjoyment of it.

ControlledAn individual feels internal or external pressure to pursue a thing.

Classic example is music students.

Those who autonomously

internalize the activity of making music tend

to be happier than those who are

controlled into the activity.

Here’s the thing:

Nag, and you lose.

If you’re building a site or a tool that you want your users to be passionate

about, you have to let them internalize the action of participating

on your site autonomously.

Activity selectionActivity valuation

Type of internalization

In summary

Harmonious passion can be a force for good.

It can improve the quality of your life.

It can improve the quality of your client’s lives.(which ought to give you some more dough)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63613245@N00/460583582/ Dalboz17

It can help power us through some of the behavioural changes we’re all facing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43204851@N00/182910562/ Asten

As designers, strategists and web geeks, we have a lot of

power.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86891211@N00/72224228/ Matthew Clark Photography & Design

Let’s do something awesome with it.

Passion FTW!

Peter Flaschner @flashlightMarch 23, 2009http://peterflaschner.com/passionftw

Peter Flaschner - Passion FTW!

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