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Mastery (book)

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🔼Topic:: Success (MOC)

🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

the path to mastery begins with finding your Life's task, then apprenticeship, to a creative-exploratory stage, and then to mastery, to have full knowledge of the field, to see the whole and to think outside the box

✒️ Note-Making

the introduction is borderline militant and power hungry. the rest is cherry picked stories about people who we will probably never be, with vaguely relying on the framework of "find your lifes-work, apprentice, and mastery", as if it is a linear path.
and the rest of the book doesn't improve, its still "mystical" level quotes of "find your inner strength" or "look wide and deep", without any guidance or ways to actually connect. in summary, this is a book that targets "the elephant", and not "the rider". a bunch of quotes and stories that are supposed to inspire you, that end no more than being a collection of wiki pages with a few comments in between.

🔍 Clarify

💭 Simply, the main message is... find your passion, and work as hard as you can to excel at it.

↔️ Relate

💭 How does this topic relate to my life?

Critique

✅ I agree with... the advantages are... the author comes from a will to power never give up type of thinking, and grit could really bring positive things to your life.

❌ I disagree with... the disadvantages are... the book is cynical towards other people, borderline exploitative and ungrateful. somehow genes and biology are very important to him, which is not at all clear why, since none of our areas to mastery are relevant to who we are as animals.

💭 Implementations and limitations of it are... there are almost none, the book offers no implementations other than "dont be stupid", "keep learning", "do whatever you can"

🤔 Reflect

💭 My main take-aways are.. this affects me by... none

✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

📒 Notes

Introduction

Mastery is not achieved through talent or genetic genius. Is it a result of a process of hard work.

The process includes:

1. Apprenticeship - learning the basics
2. creativity - experiments
3. mastery

The only way to survive the process is by doing what you have passion for, that's your uniqueness in life, otherwise boredom and distractions will defeat you eventually.

The way to build a good process is by sticking to our inclinations as biological creatures with hunter gatherer mentality. Which is basically our ability to focus, and to socialize (including empathy and mirroring other minds)

Finding your calling and achieving mastery is not only the key to help mankind (since today's problems are difficult and will require all of our collective intelligence) but also the key for yourself, since our minds are dynamic and could be improved.

Connect to your inner voice, don't listen to others or to social norms. By listening to yourself you can compare and see if your correct vacation matches your uniqueness, and you can adjust accordingly until you'll find your true area, and be on the path to mastery.
Sounds very Nietzsche to me, like his Will to Power

INTRODUCTION

• The great danger is that we give in to feelings of boredom, impatience, fear, and confusion. We stop observing and learning. The process comes to a halt.
• The first is the Apprenticeship; the second is the Creative-Active; the third, Mastery. In the first phase, we stand on the outside of our field, learning as much as we can of the basic elements and rules. We have only a partial picture of the field and so our powers are limited. In the second phase, through much practice and immersion, we see into the inside of the machinery, how things connect with one another, and thus gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject. With this comes a new power—the ability to experiment and creatively play with the elements involved. In the third phase, our degree of knowledge, experience, and focus is so deep that we can now see the whole picture with complete clarity.
• Over the centuries, people have placed a wall around such mastery. They have called it genius and have thought of it as inaccessible. They have seen it as the product of privilege, inborn talent, or just the right alignment of the stars. They have made it seem as if it were as elusive as magic. But that wall is imaginary.
• at the root of this mental transformation are two simple biological traits—the visual and the social—that primitive humans leveraged into power.
• Without any visual cues or any action on the part of others, we can place ourselves inside their minds and imagine what they might be thinking.
• When we take our time and focus in depth, when we trust that going through a process of months or years will bring us mastery, we work with the grain of this marvelous instrument that developed over so many millions of years. We infallibly move to higher and higher levels of intelligence.
• They excel by their ability to practice harder and move faster through the process, all of this stemming from the intensity of their desire to learn and from the deep connection they feel to their field of study.
• This intense connection and desire allows them to withstand the pain of the process—the self-doubts, the tedious hours of practice and study, the inevitable setbacks, the endless barbs from the envious. They develop a resiliency and confidence that others lack.
• Our levels of desire, patience, persistence, and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers. Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.
• First, you must see your attempt at attaining mastery as something extremely necessary and positive.
• Second, you must convince yourself of the following: people get the mind and quality of brain that they deserve through their actions in life.

Chapter 1: discover your calling

(A repatriation of what was said in the intro), find something that you have a lot of passion for. It can be either going really dip in a specific field, or a new combination of areas of expertise.
Who you are - your biology, your upbringings, your thoughts are unique, so bring it to reality by finding your "life's work". Don't be led astray by other people, listen to your inner voice.

DISCOVER YOUR CALLING: THE LIFE’S TASK

• “Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death.”
• At your birth a seed is planted. That seed is your uniqueness. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. It has a natural, assertive energy to it. Your Life’s Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work. You have a destiny to fulfill.
• Some people never become who they are; they stop trusting in themselves; they conform to the tastes of others, and they end up wearing a mask that hides their true nature. If you allow yourself to learn who you really are by paying attention to that voice and force within you, then you can become what you were fated to become—an individual, a Master.
• In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it.
• Let your sense of rebellion fill you with energy and purpose.
• Since you are on your own, it is up to you to foresee the changes going on right now in your profession. You must adapt your Life’s Task to these circumstances. You do not hold on to past ways of doing things, because that will ensure you will fall behind and suffer for it. You are flexible and always looking to adapt.

Chapter 2-4: apprenticeship

Look for the opportunities that gives you the most chance to learn and develop, not salary or status.
At the beginning of the apprenticeship, learn as much as you can, listen, don't try to get attention or climb the ladder. Every area is affected by years of people making incremental improvements, learn what was and what is the best practices, the most important skills. Preferably focus on one.
Then, move from learning to practicing. Treat it as a challenge to improve, find one skill and repeat it, don't let boredom or distractions get in the way. By practicing we are not only improving our skill, but our mind and specifically our ability to concentrate, which is the key skill for learning and evolving.

Learning is something you have to fight for, and it is up to you to never be satisfied with your current position, always try and learn new skills and combine different areas. The future belongs to those who will manage to keep up with the world's complexity .

be critical towards yourself, trade talent for hardwork anyday, don't be afraid to make mistakes.

A mentor would hasten your rise to mastery. You will get access to trade secrets, connections, and a personal guide to reduce the time of trail and error. So find a mentor once you control the basics and believe that they could benefit or be of interest in teaching you.
Never stay in their shadow for to long, your goal is to surpass them. Learn what you can, develop your own style and move on.

Be careful not to look at your mentor as a parental figure, be critical and observant. In general, lose your childish nevite and understand people as they are, not as you believe people should be. Observe their actions, words, habits, so much that you could really feel what it's like to be them, empathize with them, understand their viewpoint, so you can take advantage of it.

Human tendency:

1. Envy - they might envy you, so be humble, acknowledge others and take interest in them, boost their success.
2. conformism - keep being yourself, but on publish issues adhere to the norm and what's acceptable.
3. rigidness - accept that some people would be resistive to change, but you yourself must remain flexible
4. self interest - people are only interested in themselves, when asking for help, always be tic for tic, offer help in return
5. lazy - people would try to steal your success if they can, don't let them.
6. emotional - people are always under the control of their emotions, so don't take their statements at face value.
7. passive aggressive - people are passive aggressive, don't lose your cool and avoid drama

Be aware of your persona and how you are perceived by others.

SUBMIT TO REALITY: THE IDEAL APPRENTICESHIP

• the goal of an apprenticeship is not money, a good position, a title, or a diploma, but rather the transformation of your mind and character—the
• you must choose places of work and positions that offer the greatest possibilities for learning. Practical knowledge is the ultimate commodity, and is what will pay you dividends for decades to come—far
• The greatest mistake you can make in the initial months of your apprenticeship is to imagine that you have to get attention, impress people, and prove yourself.
• you enter a cycle of accelerated returns in which the practice becomes easier and more interesting, leading to the ability to practice for longer hours, which increases your skill level, which in turn makes practice even more interesting.
• First, it is essential that you begin with one skill that you can master, and that serves as a foundation for acquiring others. You must avoid at all cost the idea that you can manage learning several skills at a time. You need to develop your powers of concentration, and understand that trying to multitask will be the death of the process. Second, the initial stages of learning a skill invariably involve tedium. Yet rather than avoiding this inevitable tedium, you must accept and embrace it.
• when you practice and develop any skill you transform yourself in the process.
• Real pleasure comes from overcoming challenges, feeling confidence in your abilities, gaining fluency in skills, and experiencing the power this brings. You develop patience. Boredom no longer signals the need for distraction, but rather the need for new challenges to conquer.
• all of us must possess different forms of knowledge and an array of skills in different fields, and have minds that are capable of organizing large amounts of information. The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.
• You cannot make anything worthwhile in this world unless you have first developed and transformed yourself.
• you must value learning above everything else. This will lead you to all of the right choices. You will opt for the situation that will give you the most opportunities to learn, particularly with hands-on work. You will choose a place that has people and mentors who can inspire and teach you.
• no one is really going to help you or give you direction. In fact, the odds are against you. If you desire an apprenticeship, if you want to learn and set yourself up for mastery, you have to do it yourself, and with great energy.
• when you enter a new environment, your task is to learn and absorb as much as possible. For that purpose you must try to revert to a childlike feeling of inferiority—the feeling that others know much more than you and that you are dependent upon them to learn and safely navigate your apprenticeship.
• There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn.
• We must constantly ask the questions—how do things work, how do decisions get made, how does the group interact?

ABSORB THE MASTER’S POWER: THE MENTOR DYNAMIC

• Choose the mentor who best fits your needs and connects to your Life’s Task. Once you have internalized their knowledge, you must move on and never remain in their shadow. Your goal is always to surpass your mentors in mastery and brilliance.
• you may not want to go in search of mentors until you have acquired some elementary skills and discipline that you can rely upon to interest them.
• Mentors have their own strengths and weaknesses. The good ones allow you to develop your own style and then to leave them when the time is right.
• In selecting a mentor, you will want to keep in mind your inclinations and Life’s Task, the future position you envision for yourself. The mentor you choose should be strategically aligned with this.
• Get them to give you the proper challenges that will reveal your strengths and weaknesses and allow you to gain as much feedback as possible, no matter how hard it might be to take.
• As apprentices, we all share in this dilemma. To learn from mentors, we must be open and completely receptive to their ideas. We must fall under their spell. But if we take this too far, we become so marked by their influence that we have no internal space to incubate and develop our own voice, and we spend our lives tied to ideas that are not our own.

SEE PEOPLE AS THEY ARE: SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE

• People who retain their childish attitudes will rarely be able to hold on to the success they may achieve through their talent. Social intelligence is nothing more than the process of discarding the Naïve Perspective and approaching something more realistic.
• To develop your intellectual powers at the expense of the social is to retard your own progress to mastery, and limit the full range of your creative powers.
• your work is the single greatest means at your disposal for expressing your social intelligence. By being efficient and detail oriented in what you do, you demonstrate that you are thinking of the group at large and advancing its cause.
• the personality we project to the world plays a substantial role in our success and in our ascension to mastery.
• In this diverse, multicultural world, it is best that you learn how to mingle and blend into all types of environments, giving yourself maximum flexibility. You must take pleasure in creating these personas—it will make you a better performer on the public stage.
• To have the power to see ourselves through the eyes of others would be of immense benefit to our social intelligence. We could begin to correct the flaws that offend, to see the role that we play in creating any kind of negative dynamic, and to have a more realistic assessment of who we are.
• when it comes to practical life, what should matter is getting long-term results, and getting the work done in as efficient and creative a manner as possible.

Chapter 5: creative

After you finished mastering the basics, it's time to explore new ways of thinking and mixing different fields of knowledge. Question all the "rules" in your profession, have a child like curiosity. Find a task to give it your all, connect ideas together and form an open mind to different theories

To be creative is a struggle, it feeds on resistance and difficulties. Think about what is missing, not just what's in front of you. Think with all your senses.

When you're in this phase, to be content with what you know, don't be dependent on your mentor, and don't be resort to agree with the ways everyone is doing things

AWAKEN THE DIMENSIONAL MIND: THE CREATIVE-ACTIVE

• Instead of feeling complacent about what you know, you must expand your knowledge to related fields, giving your mind fuel to make new associations between different ideas. You must experiment and look at problems from all possible angles.
• Masters and those who display a high level of creative energy are simply people who manage to retain a sizeable portion of their childhood spirit despite the pressures and demands of adulthood.
• we all possess an inborn creative force that wants to become active. This is the gift of our Original Mind, which reveals such potential. The human mind is naturally creative, constantly looking to make associations and connections between things and ideas.
• To awaken the Dimensional Mind and move through the creative process requires three essential steps: first, choosing the proper Creative Task, the kind of activity that will maximize our skills and knowledge; second, loosening and opening up the mind through certain Creative Strategies; and third, creating the optimal mental conditions for a Breakthrough or Insight.
• To put Negative Capability into practice, you must develop the habit of suspending the need to judge everything that crosses your path. You consider and even momentarily entertain viewpoints opposite to your own, seeing how they feel.
• The brain is constantly searching for similarities, differences, and relationships between what it processes. Your task is to feed this natural inclination, to create the optimal conditions for it to make new and original associations between ideas and experiences. And one of the best ways to accomplish this is by letting go of conscious control and allowing chance to enter into the process.
• you must become aware of the typical patterns your mind falls into and how you can break out of these patterns and alter your perspective through conscious effort.
• You must expand as well your notion of thinking and creativity beyond the confines of words and intellectualizations. Stimulating your brain and senses from all directions will help unlock your natural creativity and help revive your original mind.
• You don’t have the luxury of feeling frustrated. Every day represents an intense challenge, and every morning you wake up with original ideas and associations to push you along.
• Our skeptical, cynical attitudes can actually cut us off from so many interesting questions, and from reality itself.
• Constantly remind yourself of how little you truly know, and of how mysterious the world remains.
• the greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience,
• In the end, you win through superior craftsmanship, not marketing.
• Sensing the possibility of a new language or way of doing things, you must make the conscious decision to play against the very conventions that you find dead and want to get rid of.
• By creating something new you will create your own audience,
• Creativity actually resembles a process known in nature as evolutionary hijacking.
• All along the way, contingencies pop up that reveal different paths we can take, and if they are promising, we follow them, not sure of where they will lead. Instead of a straight-line development from idea to fruition, the creative process is more like the crooked branching of a tree.

Chapter 6: mastery

become the master, see the whole and interconnectedness, keep to your strengths.

FUSE THE INTUITIVE WITH THE RATIONAL: MASTERY

• Masters come to understand all of the parts involved in what they are studying. They reach a point where all of this has become internalized and they are no longer seeing the parts, but gain an intuitive feel for the whole.
• The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.
• You must see every setback, failure, or hardship as a trial along the way, as seeds that are being planted for further cultivation, if you know how to grow them.
• We must learn how to quiet the anxiety we feel whenever we are confronted with anything that seems complex or chaotic.
• in mastery we come full circle, returning to a sense of the whole. We intuit and see the connections. We embrace the natural complexity of life, making the brain expand to the dimensions of reality instead of shrinking it to the narrowest of specializations.
• There are many paths to mastery, and if you are persistent you will certainly find one that suits you. But a key component in the process is determining your mental and psychological strengths and working with them. To rise to the level of mastery requires many hours of dedicated focus and practice. You cannot get there if your work brings you no joy and you are constantly struggling to overcome your own weaknesses.
• “Look wider and think further ahead” must be your motto.