The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 2,440 ratings

Price: 17.5

Last update: 11-02-2024


About this item

Wall Street Journal Bestseller

In this groundbreaking book, New York Times bestselling author Steven Kotler decodes the mystery of ultimate human performance. Drawing on over a decade of research and first-hand reporting with dozens of top action and adventure sports athletes like big wave legend Laird Hamilton, big mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones, and skateboarding pioneer Danny Way, Kotler explores the frontier science of “flow”, an optimal state of consciousness in which we perform and feel our best.

Building a bridge between the extreme and the mainstream, The Rise of Superman explains how these athletes are using flow to do the impossible and how we can use this information to radically accelerate performance in our own lives.

At its core, this is a book about profound possibility; about what is actually possible for our species; about where - if anywhere - our limits lie.


Top reviews from the United States

gt surber
5.0 out of 5 stars Concepts of ultimate human performance presented very well
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2016
Review – The Rise of Superman Steven Kolter

“The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance” by Steven Kolter, founder and director of the Flow Genome Project, is a masterful followup to what Abraham Maslow and Mihaly Csikzentmihalya started years ago with the “Hierarchy of Needs” and “Flow.” This book traces the thoughts and achievements made possible by Flow through ultimate sports rapidly escalating achievements and then into music, play, work, and art. Kolter then projects what a possible future could be like, what with youth seeing the already high achievements, and then using heightened imagination and Flow technics to achieve even more astounding levels of achievement in nearly every field of human endeavor. Along the way Steven Kolter maps out the necessary triggers and bases for Flow to occur. These are well laid out.

Steven Kolter devotes a chapter to the Dark Side of Flow. That is, what happens to individuals who find themselves in the doldrums, in life circumstances where time and priorities of life do not allow time for Flow. Mr. Kolter also addresses that Flow, with it's constant need for challenge, does lead many people into very risky areas of achievement, and that many have lost their lives or livelihood in the chase of Flow. Mr. Kolter emphasizes that Flow is the left hand path to success, not the right hand path of 10,000 hours practice. This is a scary chapter, but an aspect of Flow that must be addressed.

The book reads well. I would put the grade level at about 11 or 12. The book is exciting, replete with lots of stories of extreme sports with rule breaking achievements and world record setting in such as skateboarding, snowboarding, acrobatic skiing, rock climbing, and the individuals who made the jumps in achievements in the ultimate sports. I feared in the third chapter that Mr. Kolter was going to go ultra technical in biometrics, bioanatomy, and bioneural chemistry, but he did not, pulling up just short of going overboard with those concepts. Yes, he does refer repeatedly to hypofrontality, and names serotonin and norepinephrine and other brain chemicals, but these are well explained and demonstrated.

Not all of the material in the book is new. Mr. Kolter is standing on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before him. Mr. Kolter acknowledges those giants. But Mr. Kolter has achieved making the concepts of ultimate human performance accessible and understandable.
CS
4.0 out of 5 stars An awesome read!
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2014
I am interested in anything to do with human performance and human development, so the combination of scientific research and extreme sports storytelling is truly entertaining. Flow-state, or peak performance state, is a state of being we all want to be in more, to maximise whatever it is we are committed to. Kotler talks about research that tells us what's happening in our brains and bodies while in this state, and how extreme sports athletes have been hacking into this state to achieve what should be impossible. And how they've been doing this intuitively and from a passion for what they do, but mostly without any professional training. He promises techniques for how we can apply this to our merely mortal lives, and that part of the book is a bit light - I could have done with some more "how to" suggestions. He points them out, almost out of a sense of obligation, and then goes on with more inspiring stories....still a really fun, entertaining and informative read.
It's Just Me
5.0 out of 5 stars NOT just for extreme sports people, BEST book on FLOW I have read
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2014
I have read a lot of books about flow. Of course, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow : The Psychology of Optimal Experience, is the classic, but I found it lacking in a number of ways. It's value is in introducing the concept of flow to a broad audience, including me. But it lacks in detail, in practical use, and it bypasses the importance of community.

I had grave doubts about Kotler's book, since, though active (hiking, biking, bikejor, horseback riding, etc.), I am not interested in extreme sports. They have always struck me as a show-offs "thing". Although I still believe that there is great truth to that, in many cases, I am now able to appreciate what extreme sports participants are getting internally and via community from their sports. But, far above and beyond knowledge of and appreciation for extreme sports is what Kotler has to say about flow. Flow, not extreme sports, is the real topic of this book. Extreme sports are just used as an example. Kotler does state that extreme sports are the only reliable way to experience flow, which I strongly disagree with. But I'm glad I continued on with this book after reading that line. There is so much great stuff in here!

Kotler's own summary, in the preface, is good: despite the unusual "them" at the center of this story, this book is really about us: you and me. Who doesn't want to know how to be their best when it matters most? To be more creative, more contented, moare consumed? To soar and not sink?... Towards these ends, this book is divided into three parts. Part One examines just how far action and adventure sports athletes have pushed the bounds of the possible and explores the science of why (this work is based on over a decade of rearch...). It's here that we'll see how flow works in the brain and the body, how it massively accelerates mental and physical performance... Part Two of this book probes the nature of the chase: how these athletes have mastered flow, how they have redesigned their lives to cultivate the state, and how we can too. Finally, Part Three looks at the darker side of flow, wider cultural impacts, and the future.

The beginning of the book covers the neuroelectricity, neuroanatomy, and neurochemisty of flow in a useful and interesting way. Detailed, but not too complicated. Kotler discusses Csikszentmihalyi, of course, but points out that Csikszentmihalyi missed the important element of decision making as an aspect of flow. Brainwaves are discussed, covering what is happening in the brain when different brainwaves are occurring, and how these relate to achieving and being in flow.

Kotler discusses the work of Leslie Sherlin, an expert on the neuroscience of high performance. From the book: "That's the secret," says Sherlin, "extremely fluid brain control. Most people can't make it through the whole cycle. They get hung up somewhere. They either can't generate all the necessary brain states or they can't control them. Elite performers can produce the right brainwave at the right time, vary its intensity as needed, then smoothly transition to the next step. Mentally, they just take total charge of the situation." Flow states, which can be considered elite performance on overdrive, take this process one step farther. "In the zone, " says Sherlin, "you still see this same fluidity in the transitions between states, but you also see even more control. Instead of producing all these other brainwaves, really good athletes can transition smoothly into the zone, creating that low alpha / high theta wave, and then hold themselves there, sort of in suspended animation, shutting out the conscious mind and letting the implicit system do it's stuff." I found the rest of the book to be very helpful in actually achieving it. Kotler gives details on how to do so, not just theory. Theory is great, and can certainly be applied, but to learn what top researchers have discovered when studying it is very helpful. That all in here.

The interrelationship between flow and creativity is well covered. Kotler tells us, "In flow, we are out resourceful, imaginative, ingenious best. Better still, the changes stick. According to research by Harvard Business School Professor Teresa Amabile, not only are creative insights consistently associated with flow states, but that amplified creativity outlasts the zone. People report feeling extraordinarily creative the day after a flow state"

Learning about transient hypofrontality was very helpful. Kotler has a lot to say about it, but here's a good summary of why it is relevant, "In flow, parts of the PFC (a brain region) aren't becoming hyperactive; parts of it are temporarily deactivating. It's an efficiency exchange. We're trading energy usually used for higher cognitive functions for heightened attention and awareness."

I also found the insight that flow isn't like a lightswitch to be very helpful in maintaining/obtaining flow. There are stages and degrees of flow. These are described in detail and are very useful in a practical way.

While reading this book, I kept saying to myself, yes, but what about the social/community side of flow. Csikszentmihalyi seems to use it in examples, but bypass it in discussing the aspects of flow. The book, Trying Not To Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity, by Edward Slingerland, is another wonderful book on flow. It is quite different from Kotler's book, as it focuses on what Eastern philosophy has to teach us about flow. One important aspect it covers well is the social side of flow. Anyway, then I reached chapter 8 in Kotler's book and was delighted to discover that he does cover the social aspect of flow. Some overlaps what Edward Slingerland says, and some is new inslght.

I've already given this book as a gift once, and will be giving it to at least one other person as well. It can add so much to a person's life to understand and achieve flow regularly.

Highly recommended!!
Joe.
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written!
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2024
Very impressive writing. Would recommend.

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