The Art of Learning
Available from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence
How do we learn and perfect a skill? What is a mastery of a subject?
This autobiographical book of a chess prodigy turned martial arts master will be insightful in different ways to every reader.
While it is possible to 'brute force' your way into an exceptional skill as mentioned in Malcom Gladwell's Outliers through consistent dedication towards 10,000 hours, Waitzkin provides much subtler clues to perfecting your craft.
Quotes of interest
My whole career, my father and I searched out opponents who were a little stronger than me, so even as I dominated the scholastic circuit, losing was part of my regular experience.
There will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don't try our hardest.
The Russian kids were great players who presented a whole new set of challenges, and instead of adapting and raising their games, American kids dropped out.
When we are present to what is, we are right up front with the expansion of time, but when we make a mistake and get frozen in what was, a layer of detachment builds. Time goes on and we stop. Suddenly we are living, playing chess, crossing the street with our eyes closed in memory. And then comes the taxicab.
Investment in loss is giving yourself to the learning process.
The Grandmaster consciously looks at less, not more. The chunks of information that have been put together in his mind allow him to see much more with much less conscious thought. So he is looking at very little and seeing quite a lot.
Players who are able to relax in brief moments of inactivity are almost always the ones who end up coming through when the game is on the line.
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