Funny, Ferriss also recommends The Art of Learning

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/05/25/the-multitas...

I’m currently reading Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning and I think this question of thinking, intuition, practice and flow and putting it all together is explored there at a great length, can totally recommend it if you’re interested in the topic.

'The art of learning' is written by Josh himself and didn't leave me with an abusive childhood impression.

Josh seems very balanced, it's a great book as well, highly recommended.

I just finished Waitzkin's The Art of Learning, which discusses exactly that.

He makes the point that (IIRC) Michael Jordan made more last-minute, game-winning throws than anyone else on his team, but he also missed the most game-losing ones. He only excelled by overreaching.

I'm currently reading a fascinating book on world-class performance, "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waizkind, a chess and martial arts champion. It gives some really great insights into the world-class players' psychology. Highly recommended!

If you want to hear something similar from someone who achieved a very high level in chess, I'd highly recommend reading Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning.

The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Recommend it for anyone interested in the learning process and how to approach new material

Your explanations remind me a lot of Josh Waitzkin, check out his book The Art of Learning or any one of his interviews. I think you will agree with a lot of what he has to say on learning as he approaches it very similarly.

The Art of Learning is one of the best books I read this year. If you liked that, you'd also probably enjoy The Inner Game of Tennis and Mastery by Robert Greene.

My 2 cents, and somewhat related: everyone should read Josh Waitzkin's The Art Of Learning [1].

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance...

The book The Art of Learning explains these concepts in depth very well.

I just started reading the Art of Learning
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performa...

I finished Linchpin a few weeks back and that was an amazing book
https://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin...

Will It Fly is a great book I learning a lot of great marketing tricks from
https://www.amazon.com/Will-Test-Business-Waste-Money/dp/099...

I don't like carrying books around. An ebook reader has me reading a lot more now. Just load it full of good reads, and you feel obligated to get through it all. Also, scanning through HN for good book recommendations. I'm reading "The Art of Learning" right now, and loving it (it's got me back into chess!).

That's funny. I came to the same conclusion as this article after reading The Art of Learning, by Josh Waitzkin, which the writer also mentions.

Project based learning is inefficient because you repeat things you know lots of times. The repetitions are spread out too far to be burned into memory.

I find that even after 6 years of experience, I still have to Google to convert an int array to string array. I've done dozens of projects, but this thing was never optimized for. It works fine to complete a project, but becomes a drag when trying to implement more complex code.

The ideal would be to internalize as a kind of instinct. When something is instinct, the subconscious can calculate it and work out solutions.

I think the best kind of learning would be to a kind of coding dojo, where they repeat similar routines until it becomes a part of their instincts.

If you are getting into competitive martial arts, I highly recommend that you read The Art of Learning (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performan...).

The Art of Learning is less about learning things than it is about becoming very, very good at the things you learn.

While the book is highly autobiographical, the author does goes into a lot of detail about how he got really good at chess and tai chi.

What a lot of people seem to forget to mention about the 10,000 hour theory is that it's 10,000 hours of purposeful, focused practice. The Art of Learning is all about doing that kind of practice.

Thanks! That bit you quoted is from the book "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin, so I can't take credit for it. Great book. Really inspiring. http://sivers.org/book/ArtOfLearning

Writing good essays/articles is something else I really aspire to, and definitely put a lot of work into. I've been studying my favorite essays by Paul Graham, Harry Beckwith, Seth Godin, and even Robert Fulghum. Those are the tops I've found in this short-form blog-length (under 2-minutes read-time) format that I like.

No other motive than the feeling of wanting to share everything I've learned before I die.

You will find lots of information on this topic on this blog:
https://commoncog.com/blog/tag/learning-techniques/

Also if you want to level up your skills, and learn about learning in general, these are some books you should check:

- Practice perfect

- Peak

- A mind for numbers

- The inner game of tennis

- Guitar zero

- The art of learning

For complete cheers beginners who want to learn and understand the ideas of the game, I highly recommend buying an oldish engine, Chessmaster XI: Grandmaster Edition, as it contains a set of amazing, approachable tutorials by an IM Joshua Waitzkin. You might know him at the author of the Art of Learning book.
Some will say that the program is old. It is. Who cares, the engine is strong enough for you, of that I'm sure, and there isn't much else you'd want as a complete beginner.

The Art of Learning by Waitzkin.

The book details the lessons over time that the author (an American chess prodigy) learned about how to improve at chess. It gets interesting when he applies these same lessons to become a world champion at combat Tai Chi.

The impact this had on me is how I apply myself to any competitive discipline to maximize learning. Not necessarily success, but the amount of knowledge gained from practice. This has the happy side effect of often leading to success.

But also I liked the stories of a child growing up in a competitive world, the amount of love and support he receives from his mentors, friends, and family. The ability to share this love with other students of chess and to produce profound insight into how people in general learn and react to hypercompetitive situations.

What is also great about the book is that it written in very accessible language. The reader does not need to be a scholar to understand the concepts Waitzkin is trying to express in his book.

One of my favorite books of all times: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. He was the chess prodigy written about in Searching for Bobby Fisher. He quit chess shortly after and became a world champion in Tai Chi. The book is about learning two very different skills and how they are the same.

Thesis that learning one thing deeply helps learn other (unrelated) things makes total sense to me.

I did not read all the comments and hence do not know if this has been already mentioned. I have found "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin, as an excellent guide to two approaches of thinking: fixed mindset and growth mindset.

The author was a national chess champion at the age of nine and later earns the title of world champion of Tai Chi, a martial art. He gives a critical analysis, especially in chapter three on how he was able to shift to growth mindset. Although most of it is very specific to him and written in chess lingo, I think the common theme is graspable and there are good ideas lying all around. Style on chessboard is direct expression of personality and this book may help you.

The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin. I was definitely in the right place to take in the topic, but it was, more or less, a book on how you can be "good" without much effort, but to be great or the best, it takes a lot of hard work and time. This book helped me learn that lesson.

On top of that, some of Tim Ferriss' stuff on accelerated learning. Learn how to learn first, then learn everything else.

Recently I read comments about "the art of learning" by child chess prodigy and expert in martial arts Josh Waitzkin about coaching and how to conquest excellence. My take on that is that if your family or society inspire on you the value of hard work and incremental improvement, you will obtain a strong motivation to get better in whatever you do and that will give you an enormous opportunity to succeed.
Speaking from my own experience, in my high school our math teacher had a voice problem and on top of that he used to speak very quickly, hence it was really difficult to understand what he was saying, but that was not a problem for me, I learned all the math in a book and became the right hand of that teacher, my duty was to try to teach to other people in class. Another nice anecdote was how I discovered the multiplication table, I was a dumb body in my childhood, I repeated several years until I was nine or ten years. I didn't know what was 2 x 2, then someone told me that the multiplication table was written in our pencil and that to answer that you have to memorize that table, that was my start on math. It seems that all the ways to a solution are written somewhere.
Anyway I wouldn't change any bit my wild education, I have really loving memories from my chilhood and school. I would never change that for a formal education, let nature teach you, something in the spirit of Mark Twain novels.

Me too. Until my family moved to an area, the schools in which didn't recognize ability as an appropriate differentiator. It was not good times for me.

This doesn't mean that ability as a differentiator is bad--I think that it's a great idea. What it does mean is that consistency is absolutely crucial when such an idea is implemented; I was in an environment where excellence was encouraged, and that led to a lot of self-motivation. Not all children are going to be in the same situation, and that could be disasterous.

"The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin tackles the concept of the environment which best facilitates learning and personal growth, and touches on the idea of ability-based classes as well. It's a great read for anyone interested in such.

I would almost suggest Josh Waitzkin’s book “The Art Of Learning” instead of Dr. Dweck’s as his speaks through first-hand experience of the two mindsets while being a child prodigy.

I'm a huge fan of Cal Newport. I've been following his blog for years and I love his methodical approach towards deconstructing and demystifying various career related things.

Some books I read this year that stand out:

* Emperor of All Maladies (Mukherjee): Beautiful look into the most elusive disease of our generation. Mukherjee provides a biography of cancer.

* The Art of Learning (Waitzkin): I've been following Josh Waitzkin since I was a little kid. I fell in love with his Chessmaster series. Waitzkin was the inspiration for (and child actor in) Searching for Bobby Fischer. A chess prodigy and former IM, Waitzkin deconstructs his learning style and how it allowed him to become a leading Tai Chi martial artist.

* Humble Pie: Autobiography of Gordon Ramsay. I am a fan and found it pretty honest (although his cockiness leaks in a bit). It's a very quick read.

I'm highly inspired by Josh Waitzkin, who inspired the book and movie "in search for Bobby Fischer" and then went to win 21 national championships and 2 world championships in Tai Chi Push Hands, a competitive kind of tai chi.

He explores how he's linked chess and tai chi with overall 'learning' in his book 'the art of learning' which I highly recommend.

He's alse been training BJJ and said he expects to be world champion by year 2010.

Speaking from personal experience, that talent itself can also be developed and improved. It's not easy, and can definitely take awhile.

'The Art of Learning' by Josh Waitzkin could be a good start for someone who wants to improve in this area.

Of course, one could also learn how to make their study technique more effective so they don't need to spend 10 hours. See 'Your Memory: How It Works and How To Improve It' by Higbee for that.

- Antifragile by Nassim Taleb

- Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse.

- The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

> 33 Strategies of War
> 48 Laws of Power

I keep going back to it because it applies in almost every conflict in life, from competitors to personal relationships to office politics. It's also very entertainingly written.

> The Checklist Manifesto

I know it cover to cover but someone impressive always keeps recommending it and I go back for a reread. Alas, it isn't very practical for a software engineer, where you face different situations daily. I really wish it was because I want it to work.

> Never Split the Difference

Negotiation is a very emotional thing. Most of the time it's simply negotiating with kids or the spouse. This book is completely amazing for it, but a lot of techniques feel unnatural. I brush up to find techniques I was using wrong or simply to remind myself to focus on empathy.

> Deep Work
> Mastery
> Peak Performance
> The Art of Learning
> The Power of Habit

My go to motivational books.

I had asked a question[0] regarding books a few months ago which ended up in the following list[1].
From those so far I have read the following:

- Elon Musk: Inventing the Future - Ashlee Vance
Totally worth to get insight into the Elon. Kinda changes the superhero/good guy image everyone has but you end up with more respect for him whatsoever.

- Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman
Awesome book presenting modern psychology. You'll get insight into how humans work.

- Rework - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
Nice, albeit small book regarding how the creators of rails manage their company. So very nice insight.

- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers - Ben Horowitz
I started reading this but it was too business centric for me so I stopped, however if you're a business owner it might be worth it.

- Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel - Rolf Potts
This is a nice/into book if you're interested into digital nomading, long term travel in general.

- The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This in my opinion is a superb book if you are interested in statistics/philosophy. He presents the chaotic structure of our world and why extreme events are more common than we think.Definitely suggested.

- The art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin
This is a book that presents the Author's (Chess and Tai Chi Chuan World champion) way of learning. Has some pretty useful insight.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12415621
[1]: https://github.com/kostistsaprailis/non-tech-books-for-devel...

One of the books that has had the biggest influence in my life is "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin, the child chess prodigy of "Searching for Bobby Fischer" fame.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performa...

You are absolutely right.

On a sidenote this post made me remember a small part of "The Art of Learning" (Josh Waitzkin), where he shares that on chess the opponents would always try to make him feel anxious.

To fight this he always took his time, maybe after the move from the opponent he would just go to the bathroom and take the time he needed to get back on track.

I don't how if this could be applied to your situation too, but I think it might be worth a try.
If the situation is anxious too you, just ask for your space and time (maybe even ask if they can give you some solitude).

Silence is gold ;)

regarding the teaching thing, there's a book that wonderfully describes part of the process behind the "incremental learning", it's not a chess book btw.
The book is "The Art of Learning" of Josh Waitzkin.

Really wonderful and insightful book.
There's a small part about his vision in how to teach chess and in that part he also shares why he believes it's better to avoid the "learn all the rules than play" but instead to learn the rule incrementally by using actual pieces on the chess table in the most simple situations (2 or 3 pieces max).
Then increase the complexity by adding pieces.

Obviously I'm going by memory so I might be a little incorrect into the explanation, but if you love the subject of learning and the subject of chess, the book is worth a look (in fact I'd advise to read the book to almost anyone).

I went through the course on your recommendation. Thanks, it was great!

Apparently much of it based on Oakley's book A Mind For Numbers, which I'll try to read soon. Much of the content also reminded me of Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning. A related thread elsewhere on HN [1] also suggests Make It Stick by Peter Brown.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8815148

"Mastery" by Robert Greene. "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. "The Icarus Deception" by Seth Godin.

"The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin

Josh Waitzkin describes something like this in his book The Art of Learning. Basically, he broke his arm a few months before an important martial arts tournament. While it was immobilized in a sling, he worked out the other arm then meditated, imagining he was working out the busted arm. He reported that this helped keep his bad arm from atrophying and becoming weak while he couldn't use it.

I would first tackle the mindset needed for peak learning.

Josh Waitzkin has some good coverage in his book The Art of Learning.

How to Solve it by Polya has some good strategies on how to solve math problems that are applicable to broader problems and learning.

Thinking as a Science by Henry Hazlitt covers a broad approach to learning anything.

I would probably read these books and try to find a few others to really get my mind in a state where it needs to be to learn.

I read The Art of Learning a few years ago, and remember it being basically an autobiography, and not anything like a manual that explains how one could actually attain any sort of super learning.

It's just personal stories that are basically "hey, this guy is awesome at a lot of stuff."

Hm. Well, I do remember how OCD he was about his subjects--reviewing videotapes of himself doing martial arts, studying moves, etc.

So, in that regard, I guess his approach, if you could infer one, was basically getting in his 10,000 hours in 1/4-1/3 of the time of most people.

Please correct me if my recollection is wrong though.

Josh Waitzkin (the kid from Searching for Bobby Fischer) wrote a book called the Art of Learning and he talks a lot about the difference between these two modes of learning. He calls it Entity versus Incremental intelligence. (Really good cliff's notes on the book by Derek Siver are here: http://sivers.org/book/ArtOfLearning). He's even harsher on entity knowledge-ists -- they crumble under the pressure.
It's a good theory to explain why some of the brightest kids I knew in high school have done nothing with their lives since: they are afraid to mess up their 'undefeated' academic records.

If anyone who read Four Hour Work Week came away feeling slightly dirty about Ferriss's route to success, I'd recommend reading "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. Josh is the chess prodigy featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and later became a world champion in Tai Chi/Push Hands.

Where Ferriss finds ways to quickly exploit weaknesses in the system to win, Waitzkin wins by constantly analyzing _himself_ to find weaknesses and improving until he is truly the best at what he does.

Both books were good, and both strategies have their time and place, but "The Art of Learning" resonated with me a little more, and I suspect it might do the same with other folks here. It feels a little more "noble".

On a side note, I think "resourcefulness", the desirable trait in a startup founder, is probably a 50/50 split between the two: recognizing and exploiting weakness/opportunity, backed up by substance and hard work.

I agree. Get help! It's not something to be ashamed of. Failure isn't something to be ashamed of. College isn't a race; maybe consider taking a year off and doing some exploring. Here's a quick Google for advice for taking a year off from college: http://ask.metafilter.com/25004/Taking-a-year-off-from-colle...

Otherwise, I can recommend to you a book that opened my eyes to the process of learning. The Art of Learning -- Josh Waitzkin.

The comparison to chess is spot on. I used to play competitive chess when I was younger and I currently compete in bjj. One interesting book on the relationship between martial arts and chess is the Art of Learning
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performan...

The author was a top ranked chess prodigy (remember the movie Looking for Bobby Fisher?) and now is a Marcelo Garcia student (one of the top bjj masters)

Spooky, just made several (checked in, checked, released, reverted) fixes... this is a time of year of deep internal distractions. I know I just don't get as much exercises as other seasons, just a good walk can help.

Spooky that I was just at a chapter in Waitzkins' book (joshwaitzkin.com "The Art of Learning" - bit of a pretentious title but a fairly down to earth read about his struggles as a kid becoming a grand master) on keeping focus. Has some good ideas about re-focusing. Do programmers really have a monopoly on hyper-focus? I can't imagine now, let alone as a 10 yr old, being in a nine hour game that the (adult) opponent is dragging as a strategy to wear one down.

"Teach yourself programming in 10 years" by Peter Norvig (http://norvig.com/21-days.html)? There's Alice and Squeak. Funnily enough, I actually think I was more fascinated by the map editor in Starcraft than the game itself. (Of course, I've only started picking up a little bit of programming recently.) I think for slightly older kids who would have fun building robots and physical things that can do tasks, there's Lego Mindstorm.

Other than that, there are 2 books which cover kid prodigies which might be applicable. "In Code - A Mathematical Journey". [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Mathematical-Sarah-Flannery-Dav...] It's the story of Sarah Flannery, who got interested in cryptography at a young age due to her family environment.

Another interesting book is "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Perform...] Josh Waitzkin was an American chess champion, before burning out at around 20. He then picked up Taijiquan, becoming the Taijiquan world champion.

I've read quite a few of the books on the list, the ones that have stayed with me and actually changed my life are, in order of impact:

1. The Art of Learning - I'll never think about practice the same way.

2. Getting Things Done - Enough has been said about this elsewhere, but the whole concept of "what's the next action" has really worked for me.

3. E-Myth Revisited - This was my MBA in one book. It came at the right time for me and really changed the way I think about creating businesses as assets. I wasn't a fan the cheesy example of the pie shop, but the advice has been invaluable.

Others that I found interesting, and that changed the way I think were:

4-hour Work Week. Yes, there is a ton of hype around this book, but I'd be surprised if anyone read it with an open mind and didn't learn anything or come away motivated to experiment with their lifestyle.

Outliers. This one probably stands out to me since I read it so recently. Gladwell gets a lot of hype as well, but I think he deserves at least some of it.

The Culture Code drastically changed the way I think about marketing.

And, a few random notes on the others I've read:

I found Predictably Irrational, Brain Rules and The 48 Laws of Power to be mostly garbage.

The Wisdom of Crowds, Wikinomics and Made to Stick are decent essays in book form.

Stumbling on Happiness is not nearly as good as Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis which would be in the first list I made above if it were on Siver's list.

Seth Godin's books are good for motivation and for changing the way you think about marketing, especially if you've been doing it for a long time (I haven't). They're quick and fun, I think they're worth reading.

Fooled By Randomness is worth reading if nothing else because Taleb is such an entertaining writer.