Book Freak 129: How to Become Excellent
Book Freak is a newsletter with mental tools you can use to improve the quality of your life and the lives of others.
In this issue: four pieces of advice from The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence, by eight-time national chess champion and world champion martial artist Josh Waitzkin
Plunge into the micro
“The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick. Our obstacle is that we live in an attention-deficit culture.”
Find opportunities in your errors
“Musicians, actors, athletes, philosophers, scientists, writers understand that brilliant creations are often born of small errors.”
Guide your battles
“At the highest levels of any kind of competitive discipline, everyone is great. At this point the decisive factor is rarely who knows more, but who dictates the tone of the battle. For this reason, almost without exception, champions are specialists whose styles emerge from profound awareness of their unique strengths, and who are exceedingly skilled at guiding the battle in that direction.”
Master a basic skill set
“It is rarely a mysterious technique that drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set. Depth beats breadth any day of the week, because it opens a channel for the intangible, unconscious, creative components of our hidden potential.”
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