Book Review: The Art of Learning

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

I came across Joshua Waitzkin through Andrew Huberman's podcast, where they have an intellectual conversation, but that was not the focus of my attention at that moment; rather, it was the fact that Joshua Waitzkin is the boy whose life inspired the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. As a known writer on the Hive blockchain, most especially for chess content, you can see the connection.

It is not all about the game of chess that intrigued me about Joshua Waitzkin or the fact that he started playing chess at the age of 6 and that he has attained the title of International Master, the second chess title in chess right before GM (Grandmaster), but it is his book The Art of Learning that I found interesting.

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It is not common to see a chess player who writes a book that is not based on pushing pawns or any other chess piece; rather, the book makes use of the knowledge of chess to create vital life lessons like the one highlighted at the beginning of the post:

- 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.

To me, this sums up what his book is all about. Joshua takes about the vital secret to mastery is consistent learning. It is not about looking for the short or fast wins; rather, it is about going through the painstaking journey that comes with growth. Do not be blinded into thinking the mastery you want can be gained overnight. It is like Malcolm Gladwell states in the principle of 10,000 hours in his book Outliers. To become good or great at something, you have to devote at least 10,000 hours to learning it.

If you are using the 40-hour work week, that is 8 hours per day, you get 5.5 years to gain mastery. That is some level of commitment to whatever it is you want to become good at. Ever wondered why they always say get them young when you want a person to become good at whatever it is? Why is it that the best footballers, basketballers, or any other athletes all had an early start? Well, it is because of the simple fact: it takes time and devotion to attain mastery.

I am no chess grandmaster or titled player, only a national and top 15% of rated players in the world, yet I have been playing the game for quite a long time since secondary school. A lot of chess grandmasters or prodigies in the world got in early in order to gain more time to master the game.

The Art of Learning is one book that does not follow the traditional chess book talking about chess positions, games, but it uses the idea of the game that progress requires consistent learning, even when you get better than a lot of people. Ronaldo still hits the gym every day to work on himself despite the fact that he is a billionaire and regarded as one of the greatest to ever hit a ball. Lebron James still does the same thing; in fact, there are debates about when Lebron James will retire, and a lot of 19, 20, and even 22-year-olds, all grown up watching Lebron playing basketball. That says a lot about how long he has been at it.

You want to be a better person, business-wise or otherwise, do not give up on the passion to keep learning and working on yourself. It takes time to achieve greatness, and it takes learning to remain truly great. If there is one thing I grabbed from this book is that learning is a continuous process, so embrace it.

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_{I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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Thanks For Reading!

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