Good morning,

How have you been feeling this week? Rocking along or fighting off a dose of mid-summer blues?

Here’s what I have for you today:

• One big thing. Some movies stay with you. Like Up and Inside Out before it, Pixar’s Soul will inspire you and prompt deep reflection. In today’s letter, I wrestle with its core concepts. ✨

• You have to check this out. A Gen X article slugfest. Three articles debate whether our generation is “the real loser generation” or if we are, in fact, the coolest and happiest cohort. See which you agree with. ✖️

• Tools and tech. When AI advice becomes good life advice. 🤖

Are you ready to jump in? 🦘

1️⃣ ONE BIG THING

Finding the soul of flow.

Last Tuesday, I watched the Pixar movie Soul for the first time.

I don't know how I missed this absolute gem. Perhaps its 2020 release date explains why.

I was also digging into the idea of “flow” this week, based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s 1990 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Flow plays a big role in the movie Soul. But so do a collection of related ideas, like mindful presence, purpose, and distraction.

The movie's genius is in contrasting different aspects of what makes life worth living.

I have a confession:

All of this left me with too many ideas for this week’s letter to you—layered on top of a wiry nest of fuzzy questions.

For example, flow is the word Csikszentmihalyi gave to the feeling of being “in the zone”. It’s doing something you enjoy that requires all your focus and the full use of your skills. You might experience flow in an athletic endeavor, playing an instrument, writing, creating, or many other ways.

It’s a great feeling—one that reminds me of the feeling of awe I get looking up at the Milky Way on a dark night in the desert, for example.

I know flow and awe are different experiences. But how so? And what role might each play in a life well-lived?

These ideas have not yet coalesced in my mind. If I had attempted it, today's letter would have been even longer than usual.

So, here’s my plan:

I’m going to simply lay out some terms, comparing and contrasting them. I hope that this will create a terminology foundation for us moving forward. My aim is more glossary than dictionary. Quite a sales pitch, isn’t it?

OK, let’s give it a go.

A bit more on the movie Soul.

Once more, Soul is wonderful. As with movies like Up and Inside Out, the folks at Pixar are magical at blending deep thinking, stunning visualizations of abstract concepts, fun, and humor. It has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“It will make any viewer cherish the life they have and want to live it more fully, every single day, ideally with lots of laughs along the way,” one newspaper reviewer said.

If you haven’t seen it, a few minutes to watch the official trailer will give you a good grounding for today’s letter.

Building a foundation of key terms.

What I'd like to do is define some key terms. Then I will give some structure to the best ways to compare and contrast the terms.

The terms are: flow, awe, mindful presence, striving, and distraction.

Flow

A term coined by psychologist Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a state of deep immersion where your skill meets a meaningful challenge. You lose track of time and self-consciousness, fully absorbed in what you're doing. You’re in the zone. Flow is common in activities like playing music, writing, trail running, or coding—anything that requires focused effort and gives real-time feedback. It has to be something you are internally motivated to do.

Awe

Awe is a feeling of wonder or reverence in the presence of something vast, beautiful, or mysterious. It’s often triggered by nature, art, or moments of sudden clarity—like staring at the stars or listening to a symphony. You don’t do anything in awe—you just receive it. It quiets the ego and expands perspective.

Mindful Presence

Mindful presence is a quiet, nonjudgmental awareness of the here and now. It's not about achieving or fixing. It is noticing with full attention. You might feel it walking in nature (without your phone), engaging in deep conversation, or more purposefully by meditating. It’s intentional and grounded but not goal-directed.

Striving

If this one feels a bit out of place, it is here because it is a key idea in the movie Soul. I think it can help us see the other terms in greater relief. Striving is effort driven by ego. You’re working not just to do something, but to be someone—to prove worth, earn approval, or chase success. It can look like ambition or productivity. The focus is on outcomes, not experience. It can be unfulfilling for many reasons, including the arrival fallacy, which I have written about many times. It looks like this.

Distraction

Distraction is a passive, low-effort state where your attention is scattered or numbed. It manifests in endless phone scrolling and TV watching—anything that fills time without your active engagement. Sometimes, we call this relaxing. Gen Z calls a variation of this "bed rotting" (and studies show they spend about 500 hours a year doing so). There is absolutely a place for this in life. It can recharge and sooth in the short term. But it can also leave you feeling disconnected and restless over time.

Comparing and contrasting experiences.

Here is where my mind really wandered this week. For example, I know flow and awe differ, but what are the distinguishing factors?

We’ll use the following variables to better understand the terms:

• Self-orientation. What happens to your sense of self in the experience? Does the ego dissolve, expand, quiet down, or check out?

• Active or receptive. Are you intentionally doing something, or simply receiving what comes?

• Effort level. How much mental, physical, or emotional effort is involved?

• Attention quality. What kind of attention does the experience invite? Is it deep, narrow, scattered, quiet, or fully immersive?

• Meaning contribution. Does the experience deepen your sense of purpose, identity, or connection? Is it part of what makes life feel worthwhile?

With these variables in place, let's use them to compare the experiences:

Flow

• Self-orientation: Self dissolves into action

• Active or receptive: Active

• Effort level: Moderate to high (requires skill and challenge)

• Attention quality: Deep and sustained focus

• Meaning contribution: High—creates a sense of purpose through doing

Awe

• Self-orientation: Self feels small but connected to something greater

• Active or receptive: Receptive

• Effort level: Low (no action required, only perception)

• Attention quality: Sharply focused on external stimulus, with inward quiet

• Meaning contribution: High—reveals perspective and beauty beyond self

Mindful Presence

• Self-orientation: Self is quietly attentive and accepting

• Active or receptive: Receptive

• Effort level: Low to moderate (requires intention, not exertion)

• Attention quality: Calm, grounded, focused on the present moment

• Meaning contribution: High—restores connection to the rewards of everyday life

Striving

• Self-orientation: Self expands via proving, achieving, or gaining status

• Active or receptive: Active

• Effort level: High

• Attention quality: Intense yet narrow, goal-locked

• Meaning contribution: After a short-term high, its contribution to meaning and life satifaction is low (see the arrival fallacy for more)

Distraction

• Self-orientation: Self is detached or numbed

• Active or receptive: Passive

• Effort level: None (activity is designed for ease)

• Attention quality: Fragmented, surface-level, or glazed

• Meaning contribution: Low—temporarily absorbing but not fulfilling

A few final comparisons.

Here are some final juxtapositions, with examples from the movie Soul.

Flow vs Striving: Flow is being in the music. Striving is needing the audience to applaud.

• Joe starts with striving, experiences flow, but doesn't understand the difference until the end of the movie (thanks to his sidekick named “22”).

Awe vs Mindful Presence: Awe is skyward, sparked by vastness. Mindful presence is earthward, rooted in small sensory moments.

• 22’s transformation is a mix of both: awe in the ordinary.

Flow vs Distraction: Flow is losing yourself IN the doing. Distraction is losing yourself TO the doing.

• Joe enters flow when he plays piano with purpose. But the “lost souls” show what happens when doing is empty.

I know this week is a little different in structure and intent.

As I tried to more fully understand these big ideas, I needed to start by understanding the terms and ideas in a deeper way.

I hope this also helped you.

Thanks for reading again this week, friend.

See you next Sunday,

Kevin