An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance - The Art of Learning

One of my favorite book, greats gems here and there and it's also very agreeable to read. But need some serious 'extraction' to put it in practice because it's deep diffuse principles most of the time

Chess and Tai Chi wonder child Josh Waitzkin describes in detail his fiercely competitive early life as a champion in both disciplines. The book is long on explaining how he wins all his championships by constantly searching for and exploiting psychological and physical advantage. While indirectly you get some insights from this that could apply to your own challenges in life, Waitzkin doesn't do a convincing job at tying his vast experience up into a whole and usable system. What I retained from this book was the surprisingly dirty tactics used by competitors, judges, coaches, and officials in order to get their guy(s) to win, especially, in two disciplines that I naively believed to be more noble and to be above this sort of dog eat dog mindset. I did not come away with much that enhanced my understanding of the Art of Learning.

Yes, I read the entire book. I will simply state: 1) My intention in reading 2) Why it resonated 3) What I got out of it.

1) My intention in reading - I am on a process of learining how to learn...to become actively engaged in whatever it is which I so choose to study. (I suffered from "academic breakdown" sometime during my quest to find an appropriate Master's program. I had a mental breakdown. I gave up after the fourth Master's program attempt and fell into three years of basic mental function until I experienced a recent awakening to reorder myself and re-think thinking.)

2) Why it resonated - It is interesting to note how in life much of what is the actual lesson is that which escapes view. The real lesson is captured in the essence of the thing...the experience; much in a similar way that an artist may attempt to draw a picture of someone, but never quite get that hidden mystery out to an exact extent. As such, this review, or any other for that matter, cannot capture the magical essence of the book.

3) What I got out of it - It was apparent to me that Mr. Waitzin's, underlying intention in this book was to express to the reader an understanding of how he used a critical and objective analysis of his own life experience as related to his chosen interests and following, the lessons on learning of his fields garnered by way of reflection and contemplation; all of this, with the intention of imparting to the readership an understanding that we ourselves, are our own best teachers if we open ourselves to the understanding of the few basic principles on learning which he introduces: the most significant of which is an attentive view of ourselves. But for the most part that escapes print. That primary principle is hidden in plain view throughout the book as the protaganist grows with his story. It has been said that, "experience is a great teacher. Unfortunately, you take the test first, and learn the lesson afterwards." This book follows Mr. Waitzkin's awakening to this realization and makes for a captivating recount.

Summation - The book is not a text book detailing an outlined approach to principles of study. Rather, the Art of Learning is better understood as being a book that uses Mr. Waitzkin's life story as a springboard to elluminate the authors own experiential life lessons such that you may be able to apply his principles of learning vis-a-vi your own personal areas of interest. It is an engaging read even if you are not into chess and/or martial arts - Mr. Waitzkins two chosen art forms which showcase the parallel nature of his method of learning, and share the common principles of understanding and application respective to their natures and rules.

Josh Waitzkin, the inspiration for the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, is no stranger to creating change in his life. Through various life events ranging from when he won his first National Chess Championship at age 8 to becoming the Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands Middleweight U.S. Champion, he has learned not only how to maintain balance in his life, but also how to realize what needs to change in order to be successful. In his autobiography The Art of Learning, Waitzkin discusses some of his life lessons that he learned from mentors in the two opposite environments of competitive chess and Tai Chi – lessons that can be applied in a multitude of areas, including life in general and, specifically, educational settings. By keeping what Waitzkin discusses in mind, teachers and educators can facilitate change and improvement in their classrooms, in their own lives, and in their students’ lives and learning.
The Art of Learning is divided into three sections in which Waitzkin describes his learning, meaning that there are three areas of discussion from which educators can draw inspiration for facilitating change in a classroom. First, in “The Foundation,” Waitzkin describes his rise to fame in the competitive chess scene, delving into his experiences and interactions with chess Grandmasters Bruce Pandolfini, Mark Dvoretsky, and Yuri Razuvaev, as well as the lessons he learned from working with each of them. In the second section, “My Second Art,” Waitzkin moves away from chess and talks about his work and participation in Tai Chi, and how he progressed from a student to a master of the Push Hands discipline of the martial art. In the final section, titled “Bringing It All Together,” Waitzkin goes into more detail about the similarities of preparation and execution between chess and Tai Chi, and how he applies what he learned in one to the other. I found that, while reading each of these sections, each chapter within a section had its own theme and lesson, most of which I feel can be included in a classroom setting.
In the book’s introduction, Waitzkin establishes his overarching theme of “I am best at the art of learning” by opening with descriptions of his attendance at the Tai Chi Push Hands championship in 2004. He reminisces on his life at the time that Searching for Bobby Fischer was in theaters, saying that he could not walk down the street without people asking him to “autograph their stomachs or legs.” He then says that this newfound fame was not truly helping him achieve happiness, nor was it aiding him in his “search for excellence.” After this experience, Waitzkin enrolled in Tai Chi classes under Grandmaster William C. C. Chen, whose classes encouraged meditation, reflection, and realizing that “the mind needed little physical action to have great physical effect.” Once he used what he learned in Tai Chi to make connections to his chess career, his life “became flooded with intense learning experiences,” ranging from watching water crash onto a shore to using basketball to work on Tai Chi mechanics. Ultimately, Waitzkin began to think about how he transferred his knowledge of chess to Tai Chi, and how this question became the central focus of his life. Waitzkin concludes with his primary theme of this book, which is that he is “best at the art of learning.” As soon as I read the introduction, I immediately began to think about what he could possibly mean by the art of learning. How is learning an art? Can someone “get better” at learning? How can I (or other educators) use what Waitzkin says to incorporate change and improvement with students? In the three sections I described earlier, Waitzkin goes into more detail and provides different techniques and suggestions that support both his main idea and facilitating change in classrooms.
One idea that I found particularly helpful and applicable to a classroom setting is one that Waitzkin talks about in the first chapter. In this chapter, Waitzkin meets Bruce Pandolfini, a chess Grandmaster that eventually becomes his mentor and teacher. Waitzkin says that one of the most important aspects about Pandolfini was his educational philosophy, which focused on discussion rather than lecture. Whenever Waitzkin would make a mistake, Pandolfini would ask him his thought process and how he reached that conclusion. Actually, Pandolfini would ask Waitzkin his thought process on nearly every facet of his chess game, encouraging him to think about his own actions as well as finding different paths to reach the same conclusion. By doing so, Waitzkin was able to develop a deeper love and understanding of chess. Pandolfini’s philosophy aligns with my own values in regards to teaching. I am a firm believer in discussion and collaboration when working with students, and Pandolfini took this approach when working with Waitzkin. In my own educational experience, a majority of my classes were heavily lecture based, where discussion was not necessarily discouraged, but was not as prominent as I would have liked. In an educational setting, focusing on collaboration and discussion (as Waitzkin and Pandolfini did) will hopefully encourage students to want to learn and help them develop a deeper understanding of their subject area.
An additional point of interest for me (which Waitzkin called investment in loss) was in the second section of the book during Waitzkin’s Tai Chi classes. In simplest terms, Waitzkin describes investment in loss as “giving yourself to the learning process.” In other words, learning comes by resisting old habits and accepting new ones, as well as not being afraid to make mistakes. In Waitzkin’s case, he began to focus exclusively on training, and was eventually was able to exploit other beginners’ habits in his classes. Because he ignored old behaviors, he was able to rapidly progress – he did not let his ego affect his learning. From an educational standpoint, this mentality is perfect for facilitating change in student attitudes. At the beginning of a school year, a teacher establishes an environment that will be set for the class. Depending on what the teacher says and how he or she presents it, students may not feel comfortable learning new methods for solving problems, may be afraid of making a mistake for fear of embarrassment from their peers, or be inclined to let their egos affect their learning. If a teacher exemplifies the mentality of investment in loss at the beginning of the year, the students will hopefully model this behavior, as well. To do so, the teacher can explain that making mistakes is acceptable (in fact, making mistakes is how we learn!), as well as being open to ideas that students have in order to show that new ideas help the learning process. By demonstrating investment in loss, students will hopefully make rapid progress as Waitzkin did with Tai Chi.
A final takeaway I found in this book is when Waitzkin mentions “building your trigger” in the third section of the book. In this chapter, the primary focus is… well… focus! Waitzkin talks about focus in terms of important competitions, and “keeping cool” under pressure. He says that when thinking about high-stakes, high-stress times, it is important to avoid giving attention to the moment that “decides your destiny.” If this occurs, then stress, tension, and over-excitement are bound to be present, which will undoubtedly affect performance. To counter these feelings, Waitzkin suggests keeping healthy patterns in day-to-day life so that, when the time comes, everything feels natural. While Waitzkin is talking about Tai Chi in this particular passage, this outlook on focus and attention can also be applied in an educational setting. When I read this passage, I thought of students taking a test. Most likely, students will be nervous or tense about a test for a variety of reasons, meaning the nervousness can take over and affect their performance. If teachers and educators take Waitzkin’s approach, they can begin helping students by incorporating methods in their classrooms that make test taking feel “normal.” For instance, a teacher for an AP Calculus class can create tests with questions based on those found on actual AP tests. In doing so, when the AP test rolls around, the students will already feel like the questions are “normal” because they have grown accustomed to them in class. As a result, students will not be distracted by nerves and will be able to focus on the task at hand, which parallels what Waitzkin says about Tai Chi.
As I read The Art of Learning, I thoroughly enjoyed how the book was written as a whole. By this, I mean that I could sit down, open up to any chapter I wanted, and discover a brand new theme different from any other chapter. Even though each of the three sections of the book were devoted to either chess, Tai Chi, or both combined (respectively), I felt that I did not need to read each chapter in the proper order to understand Waitzkin’s messages and lessons. It felt like a season of television’s Scrubs: I can jump into any episode of the season and not feel lost, but I can pick up on the story halfway through. Each chapter was relatively short, but had some themes that made me question both how I live my own life and how I will teach in the future. I also enjoyed the fact that Waitzkin has a desire for learning and improving anything he tries. In an educational setting, this is a perfect attitude to have – everyone is allowed to make mistakes (except on a test!), everyone is encouraged to explore and learn through discovery, and assessments help both teachers and students improve their educational experience.
Even though this book was not written by an educator, per say, The Art of Learning has an incredible amount of inspiring material that can be applied to an educational setting. Waitzkin says in his Afterword, “mastery involves discovering the most resonant information and integrating it so deeply and fully it disappears and allows us to fly free.” By taking what Josh Waitzkin includes in his book and incorporating his messages into a classroom, educators will not only encourage students to think about their thinking (as Waitzkin did in his interactions with Pandolfini), but also how to become better learners and students. This book is an incredible read, resource, and guide for facilitating change in a classroom and life.

This is a good book on learning. Just like study skills are essential for getting good grades in college, knowing how to learn is essential on learning new skills. "The Art of Learning" is a rather fun book to read especially since I like martial arts. In this case, the author discusses his experience in becoming a world class practitioner and competitor in Tai-Chi.

Learning a skill requires focus and soundness of the mind. It is as though everything is in slow motion. This is conducive to learning and even mastering a skill. That inner game that goes on between our ears needs to be settled and calm in order to achieve victory or in this case mastery.

Yoga teaches about living in the present. Learning is a skill that anyone and everyone should practice with astute and mental focus and calmness.

JR Felisilda
Author of the book, "Nanay: Lessons From a Mother"

I picked up this book after hearing about it from a friend and had high hopes for a great read. There are some interesting stories but I found nothing to take away that could help me in me own pursuit of excellence. If you're interested in learning more about the life of Josh Waitzkin then you will probably enjoy the book. If you're looking for advice to help you pursue excellence in your own life, you may want to look elsewhere.

I enjoyed the interview with Tim F. and decided to buy his book but the book offers little technique or advice on learning. I read and read hoping to get through the countless stories regarding Chess only to find that there was nothing useful .

The Title should be The Art of Competition.

Good book, well-written and a usable message. The techniques discussed can benefit everyone. I see this as the practical field guide to Mihaly's 'Flow'. The author's experience with the mental game of chess and phsyical game of Push Hands helps bridge the overall message of flow, focus and ideal mental states to deal with challenge.

Josh is an awesome writer that goes into many deep topics from an introspective level. Much of the book was told from a first person perspective about his personal experiences in chess and push hands. I was hoping for more of an objective analysis of the themes he touched on. Still a great, well written book on intuitive performance.

This book delves deep into an often overlooked part of a champion, the mindset. Josh tells tales of chess mastering and how it flowed into his martial arts disciplines. Great book to get into the mind of a great man.

Interesting and thoughtful. Well written. Not so much about learning techniques for average people, but quite a lot of Zen inspired philosophy that I fond intriguing. Josh seems like quite a character - humble, yet extremely resilient and competetive.

“Evolution, Morpheus, evolution” – Agent Smith, The Matrix

I’m a performance nut.

Whether it’s trading, endurance racing, rock climbing, ju jitsu, or anything else. It doesn’t matter. If I’m doing it, then I’m obsessing over performance — and going to extreme lengths to improve and be better than the next.

This is why trading and investing appeals to me. I like challenges. And there are few games more challenging than the markets.

A big part of what we do at Macro Ops is study other top performers.

And not just legendary traders, but the top 0.1% of performers from a variety of fields and disciplines.

We dissect their daily habits, thought processes, and mindsets to find commonalities and linkages to success. We do this with the hopes of updating our own internal processes to improve our game.

It’s a constant journey, an arms race of sorts, on the path towards complete mastery.

Like Agent Smith said, it’s all about “Evolution, Morpheus, evolution.”

A book that’s greatly shaped the way we approach this constant evolution is The Art of Learning, by Josh Waitzkin.

For those of you not familiar with Waitzkin, he was the subject of the popular 90’s movie Searching for Bobby Fischer.

Waitzkin was a child chess prodigy. He won his first National Championship (of eight total) by the age of nine. At 20 years old, he left the competitive world of chess and began devoting himself to learning Tai Chi Chuan.

Within four years, he became the Tai Chi Chuan push-hands World Champion.

Needless to say, Waitzkin is a Top Performer. The Art of Learning is the culmination of over five years of Waitzkin documenting his own learning processes.

He deconstructs his methods down to the microscopic level, and successfully relates these rather abstract concepts in an impressively cogent and understandable writing style.

The result is a book, comparable in content to Geoff Colvin’s Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everybody Else and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, but written in a first-hand narrative that makes for an entertaining and enjoyable read.

The following are some of my favorite take-aways and observations. There are abundant parallels to trading and investing throughout.

- Start With the Fundamentals

Waitzkin stresses the importance of beginning with the core principles of your craft and attaining a strong grasp of the fundamentals.

Too many people try to delve into the complex before they fully grasp the basics. It’s important to “embrace an organic long-term learning process“. The journey to mastery is a long and difficult road. Patience with the process is essential.

Similar to how the heights of a skyscraper cannot be built without first constructing a solid foundation, the mastering of a skill must first begin with learning the fundamentals.

"The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick."

Marine Corps Scout Snipers, generally regarded as the best combat precision shooters in the world, train to hit moving targets at up to a 1,000 yards.

When they start their training they spend months practicing their shooting positions and dry firing (pulling the trigger without ammunition) before they ever shoot live ammunition.

To a casual observer this probably seems superfluous — how much can go into a prone shooting position? Well the answer is… A LOT. Without mastering the basic but essential skill of a solid shooting position, the sniper will never reach out and knock targets a click away. I know this because I used to be a Marine Scout Sniper.

The truth is, there are often many subtleties and nuances in the basic fundamentals of a skill.

These are often invisible to the beginner because their skills are below the level where the cracks in their foundation become apparent. As a result… these nuances become easy to gloss over.

Those who seek higher levels of performance must first master the very basics of their craft.

- Expand and Refine

"You start with the fundamentals, get a solid foundation fueled by understanding the principles of your discipline, then you expand and refine your repertoire, guided by your individual predispositions, while keeping in touch, however abstractly, with what you feel to be the essential core of the art."

When you’ve developed a solid grasp of the fundamentals, you can then branch out and expand your toolkit to increasingly more complex skills. This is where you begin finding your “style” of play.

You should not strive to imitate other styles or forms that do not naturally fit with your own predispositions. Doing so will likely create internal conflicts, and as a result, hinder development.

For example, a value investor should not try to buy into momentum names with astronomical valuations. Buying high contradicts the investor’s beliefs about the market. This internal conflict would then interfere with the confidence needed to successfully buy relatively cheap “value” plays in accordance with the investor’s original strategy.

Waitzkin stresses the importance of staying “true to yourself” while developing your skill set. Your craft should serve as a form of natural self-expression. This allows the creative process to flow organically, and is conducive to the deeper level introspection that enables advanced learning.

- Make Smaller Circles

Once you’ve established a foundation and built a repertoire of personalized tools, you can then begin to intensely ingrain those processes into your subconscious.

Waitzkin uses the analogy of “making smaller circles”. This concept means to continually refine and deeply internalize your skill set.

"It’s rarely a mysterious technique that drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set."

The more you tweak, practice, and perfect the minutiae of your craft, the more your subconscious mind builds connections. When old processes — which previously took focused effort — become internalized as part of your subconscious network, you can begin to focus on additional processes simultaneously. All while still expending the same amount of energy.

As more and more of your processes become internalized, your conscious mind becomes free to operate in the present. This has the effect of slowing down your perception of time. It’s in this state where really interesting things begin to happen. This phenomenon is often referred to as being in the zone.

Through the process of making smaller and smaller circles, you become more attuned with your strengths and weaknesses. This allows you to isolate the areas of your game that need to be tightened up.

In his book, Waitzkin is constantly seeking players (in both chess and push-hands) that are better than him, or that play to a weak spot in his game. Through this constant state of challenge, he’s able to develop and evolve much quicker than those that stay in calm waters.

Growth comes at the point of resistance. And for the champion, the process continues forever. The journey to mastery is a road with no end.

- Presence of Mind

The importance of maintaining presence and clarity of mind, especially after a mistake, is drilled home throughout the book.

"The first mistake rarely proves disastrous, but the downward spiral of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th error creates a devastating chain reaction."

It’s part of human nature to be inclined to act on emotion, completely disregarding logical consequences. We see this behavior time and time again in sports. The professional golfer that botches a putt and follows up quickly, only to miss what should have been a tap in. Or the poker player on tilt who starts making irrational bets after a bad beat.

Waitzkin discusses the need to remove ourselves from this vicious cycle. He says the way to accomplish this is to separate our conscious mind from our emotional state. This allows us to remain present in the task, and clear in our logic, by seeing emotions for what they are — versus letting them dictate our actions.

Once you’ve successfully mastered objectiveness in your thoughts and actions, you can begin to channel these emotions to your benefit.

"There are those elite performers who use emotion, observing their moment and then channeling everything into a deeper focus that generates a uniquely flavored creativity. This is an interesting, resilient approach based on flexibility and subtle introspective awareness. Instead of being bullied by or denying their unconscious, these players let their internal movements flavor their fires."

- Culmination

Once you reach a level of mastery in your craft, each “principle loses rigidity, and you get better and better at reading the subtle signs of qualitative relativity. Soon enough, learning becomes unlearning.”

Waitzkin notes, that “the stronger chess player is often the one who is less attached to a dogmatic interpretation of the principles. This leads to a whole new layer of principles — those that consist of the exceptions to the initial principles.“

Bruce Lee (a personal idol of mine) is a great example of this concept. His efficiency in many fighting styles allowed him to transcend the restriction of any adherence to a single form. He only used what worked and what flowed naturally through his process of self expression.

Lee touched on the importance of fluidity, when he said:

"Be like water making its way through the cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves."

- Nurture over Nature

For those of you set on living lives of constant evolution, embracing strife for the sake of growth, and devoting yourself to mastering the means of self expression, I suggest you pick up a copy of The Art of Learning.

The knowledge within these pages is invaluable to any trader or investor aspiring for greatness. The book drives home the wisdom that mastery is all about an unrelenting focus on process… and not on outcomes.

If you heed that message and take it to heart, you should do quite well in trading.

I’ll end with a quote from a personal hero of mine, Theodore Roosevelt (a man who never shied away from challenges):

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

If you have within you the drive to be excellent, to reach the top of whatever field you are in, you will find this book to be an amazing source of both wisdom and common sense that you have likely never heard before, expressed in a way that anyone with a mind open to instruction can understand. Who would have thought that chess and martial arts have so much in common, and that at the core all types of competition require the same type of focus, concentration, intuition, and mental self-discipline to learn and do what it takes to become the best of the best? And best of all, the book is an easy read and valuable help for anyone who wants to improve their level of performance regardless of their current occupation or circumstances. Get this book and read it before you shell out hundreds or even thousands of dollars to the self-help "gurus!"

Simply one of the best books for breaking down the path to mastering anything. Josh Waitzkin uses his own path of mastery to demonstrate the path one must take to become a master of oneself. Each one of the steps the author presents is accompanied with many vivid illustrations of his point. These illustrations bring to life the principles, and allow the reader the ability to then master them as well.

One of the biggest takeaways from this book is the importance of introspection. What gives the author his competitive advantage is the ability to break down his performance, see the positives and negatives of his approach, and adjust his approach until it is not only mentally understood, but subconsciously programmed. What a powerful mindset!

Anyways for the casual reader or the committed chess player or martial artist, this is a book that you NEED in your library. Read it, understand it, internalize it, and your life will benefit everyday.

This was truly insightful. Got a little sluggish with the tournament story as a finisher, but that was the life experience that he used to illustrate the principles learned along the way. I've been on a kick lately with books in this genre. I place this among the best books in the modern "learning how to learn" set. Josh has definitely come across in these pages as the most honest. Very intelligent read.

Really!! The art of learning. More a egotistical history of an apparently intelligent child to adult.
There is no value in this book to anyone who thinks it will help in learning techniques.
Just an autobiography. Should be labeled as such. Waste of money and time.
the store should be spending more time and effort looking for reviews which have been
purchased. No one with any interest in learning techniques would give this book any
more than one star.
Most of the reviews of this book are examples of why soon the store reviews will be totally
untrustworthy.

Josh has a very interesting personal story and wrapped inside that is great insight on how to pursue excellence in any endeavor. I think this book is just as valuable to the teacher as to the learner. Very inspiring.

well-written, informative, and insightful. Josh distills what he has learned after achieving world class performance in chess, a highly cerebral activity and pushing hands, a martial art. Lessons can be applied to everyone who wants improve how they learn and achieve more.

I enjoyed this book a lot. From the beginning chapters to the very last page. The beginning stories of him being a young cat in NYC brought me back to my upbringing in upper Manhattan.

Josh's writing style gives you a glimpse into a very gifted and dedicated mind. My favorite parts are when he shares his little secrets for success. For example, never being satisfied after beating mediocre players and always playing against the best competition. Or training in a stressed state to prepare for the "worst case scenario". Also, how to pick the right teacher and when to move on from an instructor who just isn't at the highest level of teaching and or learning.

I'm even thinking about taking a tai chi class at William C. Chens school on 28th street.

Very grateful I read this book. Really wish I would have read it when I was younger in the game. Really could have used the structure. At least I can share the lessons with my children and always remind them of one of my favorite lessons from this book: if you're bad at something it's not because you're no good, it's just because you haven't learned it yet.

Keep on moving towards excellence and don't forget to enjoy the everyday journey on your way there. Peace.

Enjoyed every page of the reading, really making me think deep and broad about what my life experiences and how can I make it better even though my profession has nothing to do with Josh's! In a word, a total inter connectedness!

Not only inspirational and poignant but also great ideas in learning philosophy. Mastering a skill is contingent largely on the methods you use to do it and a good way to discover those methods is by modeling the practices and habits of some one who has already achieved mastery. Waitzkin has made it even easier for us by taking time to be introspective about the mastery process and then share his insights with us. If you have never been on the arduous journey of skill mastery it may be difficult to identify with his advice. However, as a lifelong musician, language-learner, and all-around skill acquirer, I could readily see how the underlying principles of learning that he talks about apply to mastering any skill set. Overall, a compelling read for anyone, and especially thought-provoking for those trying to reach mastery of their craft, whatever it may be.

In this book Josh Waitzkin explains his own personal experience in learning how to live life flexibly and fruitfully. He explains techniques he gained through his career as an accomplished chess player and martial artist. Techniques such as triggering inspiration, using adversity, being fluid and accepting what life offers as is, and using one’s imperfections to his/her own advantage are explained and discussed through his own experience. Overall I enjoyed the presentation, the deep insights, and the excellent use of language. If one is a chess player or a martial artist, they can relate more to the presentation and examples. Some of the sentences can serve as quotes which elegantly encompass deep wisdom. I particularly like this sentence on page 186:
“Not only do we have to be good at waiting, we have to love it. Because waiting is not waiting, it is life.”

Things I did not enjoy much, his disdainful criticism of Mark Dvoretsky (a giant chess trainer) and sometimes his elaboration on personal details that do not serve a clear purpose in the scope of this presentation. I found describing Mark’s habits of eating and talking is very disrespectful and does not serve the context at all.

Overall I recommend reading this book for those who want to learn something about fruitful living of life.

I think this book deserves a different tile which is why I suggested it. If your searching for a book that provides a formal process for learning this isn't it. I The book doesn't teach you the formal way of learning that you