The Art of Learning – Quick Summary

1-Sentence Description ofThe Art of Learningby Josh Waitzkin

” Waitzkin tells his remarkable story of personal achievement and shares the principles of learning and performance that have propelled him to the top, twice.

1) Using Adversity

There are three critical steps in a resilient performer’s evolving relationship to chaotic situations: Learn to be at peace with imperfection (noisy environments, etc.) (grass in the wind instead of a tree), learn to use that imperfection to our advantage (earthquake), learn to create little ripples on demand to spur focus or insight

2) Making Smaller Circles

Don’t be tempted by novelty, go deeper into learning the simplest techniques. Eventually, that will enable you to solve more complex problems.

3) Slowing Down Time

After acquiring a certain level of expertise, shift from learning more to organizing and making more accessible the information and skills you already have.

“The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.”

“This concept of Making Smaller Circles has been a critical component of my learning process in chess and the martial arts. In both fields, players tend to get attached to fancy techniques and fail to recognize that subtle internalization and refinement is much more important than the quantity of what is learned.”

“I have long believed that if a student of virtually any discipline could avoid ever repeating the same mistake twice— both technical and psychological— he or she would skyrocket to the top of their field.”

It’s unaccountably rare to find someone who can perform at the highest levels of human capacity (mentally or physically) who can articulate much meaningfully about how they do it. You can survey top performers, and many have, and most won’t have a concrete framework of thought behind that performance and most of it is intuitive. the underlying principals are essentially a mystery.

If you’re interested in gaining insight into the mind of a child chess prodigy turned adult martial arts champion, this is a decent book. It’s reasonably readable and has a lot of interesting stories about the author’s chess and marital arts careers. As an inspirational or how-to book, though, it falls short. Maybe it would be helpful if you’re interested in single-minded, highly-focused training in chess, martial arts, or another highly technical, subtle, and competitive pursuit. But, despite his claims that his road map for learning can be applied to any discipline, the author is unable to illustrate his ideas with examples from outside his own two fields. He also does a poor job of pulling the ideas together into specific, actionable advice.

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1. Will It Fly Summary (7/10)
2. Modern Man in Search of a Soul Summary (8/10)
3. Part 2: Stir Up The Transgressive and Taboo (The Art of Seduction)
4. Chapter 19: And They Lived Happily Every After (Sapiens)