The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin Summary: Accelerated Learning Techniques To Become A SuperLearner
Josh Waitzkin became a national champion in two skills by his early thirties: chess (as a teen) and Tai Chi Chuan, a competitive martial arts. Later on, he became a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the first student to do so under Marcelo Garcia, a man widely regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound grapplers in the world.
He was also the basis for the popular chess film, Searching for Bobby Fischer. What was his secret for mastering so many skills so early when most people can’t master one skill in their entire lifetime?
According to Josh, the secret was that he was better at learning than others. He succeeded in his second skill after quitting chess by applying his ability to learn. The great news is that Josh wrote a book, The Art of Learning, to teach you how to learn better.
Here is my The Art of Learning summary. You will learn the top accelerated learning techniques to learn faster, retain the information, and progress in your chosen craft quicker.
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Embrace Mistakes to Learn and Grow
The first lesson is called investment in loss. It is a core principle to master learning. You need to put aside your ego and be okay with looking stupid with making mistaking so you can learn from them. Old habits, principles, or ways of thinking occasionally need to be abandoned to make way for what actually works. You should come off of a mistake or loss better than before.
This is a common mistake Josh noticed in his peers. They progress slower than him because they don’t give up old habits or are too proud to lose.
Dr. Carol Dweck expands upon this with her concepts of Fixed vs. Growth Mindset through her experiments. Her book, Mindset: The Psychology of Success, goes into more detail but the summary is that successful people embrace mistakes and believe they can improve, while unsuccessful people believe their skill level is fixed from birth.
These different mindsets can play out in different behavior. If a fixed mindset person is told he is smart, he will do everything he can to keep that image of being smart, even if it means not making mistakes to improve. If you are taught that winning matters most, you will emphasize winning at the cost of losing to learn and grow.
One time, he met a boy who was praised as being amazing in chess by his friends and family. Everyone this boy knew praised him as “undefeated.” He ended up refusing to play chess with Josh because he didn’t want to shatter his image of perfection.
Garry Kasparov, regarded by many as the best chess player of all time, said in a Google Talk:
“Let’s forget about avoiding mistakes. If we don’t make mistakes, we’re dead …making mistakes is [part of] a normal decision-making process … First, you have to kill the fear. The less you fear making a mistake, it dramatically reduces the chances you will make one. Most mistakes have a psychological root … You will fail at some point. Recognizing that will help you boost your performance.”
Put Aside Your Ego To Be Right and Always Win
Josh observed that people who were slower than him to grow often had an ego to be right. They would explain why they did things when the teacher corrected them. Throw away the need to be right, and embrace new ways of thinking as fast as you can.
Do the exact opposite of these guys. They never learned from their mistakes and were doomed to repeat them. They defended their need to be right and in control. They valued winning over learning and improving.
Because of their ego, they never were willing to invest in loss.