The Art of Learning book Josh Waitzkin written for everyone who wants to learn something new in their lives. It's also about success - how to be the best at what you do, no matter what it is.
In the book itself, Josh Waitzkin proved that talent does not always determine the best. It is much more important to have the right psychological attitudes, a craving for knowledge, to cultivate the right habits in oneself. . These are the factors that determine success in a person's life., it is thanks to them that he becomes the Winner.
Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning is a snapshot of his biography. At 9 years old he became a national chess champion, and at 28- a champion in such a martial art as tai chi. Absolutely different types sports and in both cases - the winner's pedestal. How did he do it? You will find the answer in Josh's book.
Psychological stability
Your growth begins outside of your "comfort zone". Any person begins practical training only when he goes beyond his limits!
Being at the top of a pedestal in your field is very important to have mental toughness. The good news is that it can (and should) be trained.
It is important for an athlete, as well as for any other specialist in his field, to perform visualization exercises their goals. This is one of the key aspects in achieving success.
Keep your mind clear
An important point after the defeat is clarity of your thoughts, preservation of willpower and spirit. Of course, it is easier to return to the comfort zone, but this will not bring positive results in achieving success, victory. Staying clear-headed at a time like this is hard, but it's worth it.
The first mistakes are unlikely to have a serious impact on you, but if they continue, then even if you give up further struggle, you will be left with a feeling of confusion. It will seem that life has become worse. This hinders further development Therefore, it is important to be psychologically stable and think clearly, to be a conscious person.
Recipe for success
In order to become a professional in your field, you need to become open to the process of long-term learning. Some people believe that you can become the best in only one area, having deeply studied all its subtleties in practice.
However, once you understand how one system works, it will be much easier to understand how another works. In any case, its main features.
People armed with a conscious approach to the situation and capable of extracting practical lessons From any life experience, positive and negative, most often they achieve success further than others. In addition, they are also happier than others!
Failure is training!
If you want to be a professional at what you do, you must take risks when others avoid them. You must learn and learn from every situation use an unfavorable state of affairs to your advantage.
Getting to the very top requires dedication and an inquisitive mind. Such people perceive obstacles as simulators and an incentive for new searches, learning something new. Failure only strengthens their resolve. Any injury or loss is easier to survive if you do not give up.
Having won one victory, you can enjoy it by inhaling deeply. And then - continue to go to the next goal!
Sometimes painful situations in the distant past, understood and meaningful, have more value than the results of your victories. Your experience is the most important thing you have. We just need to learn "see" and use it in the future on the path to success and excellence.
Have you read Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning? Which of the author's rules do you already use in life?
After the release of the film, I could not appear in public without being surrounded by fans asking for an autograph. Instead of studying chess games, I had to lead a secular lifestyle.
From chess to martial arts
The 100-pound giant glared at me darkly, and we touched the backs of our wrists. His sweaty, hard-featured face was furious. This guy, an experienced fighter, not weighed down by moral principles, was eager to tear me apart.
Don't be afraid to lose
In my opinion, it is very important to develop an approach that allows for periods of temporary decline in sports performance. We must take responsibility for ourselves, and not wait for the whole world to understand what it takes for us to become the first again and again.
After almost any injury, I returned to the gym no later than the next day. If I want to be the best, then I must take risks when others avoid risk, learn from lessons and learn to use an unfavorable situation to my advantage in any situation.
Grandma is right
My grandmother Stella Waitzkin, a sculptor and incredibly creative artist, often told me that intuition is the hand of God. Artists often talk about intuition as their muse. From my point of view, intuition is our most valuable compass in this world.
Important feature
Mental toughness is a critical trait for someone who is at the championship level. It needs to be constantly developed. Growth starts outside the comfort zone. We learn when we try to go beyond our limits.
- Understanding the principle of action after a thorough study of one subject or event. Many activities are very similar, but we do not realize this until we do them. For example: for Josh, chess and taijiquan* (including the martial direction - tuishou) were not just similar, but at some point began to merge in his mind. As you study one activity or practice, you continue to study another. (*Taijiquan, one of the types of wushu, Chinese health gymnastics, meditation practice and martial art). Complex techniques are often based on simple principles.
- "Learning numbers to forget about numbers", "Learning shapes to forget about shapes". This key learning method applies to any discipline. If a capable chess player is visited by innovative ideas for his level, he is delighted with his insight. But to a grandmaster these ideas will seem banal, because he knows the principles of chess. The fundamental mistake is the desire to quickly achieve good results. Understand how everything works, study the subject in depth, analyze the details. Creativity is connected with theory, individuality is revealed through a good understanding of basic things.
- The method of Taoist mentors: “learn this through that”, “study the hard from the standpoint of the soft”, learn to see the connections between opposites. Learn to read the intentions of the other side and hide your own by impersonating the enemy.
- Entering the comfort zone. Most often we use the concept of "comfort zone" in a negative context, but there is also a positive one. Josh Waitzkin is not talking about getting stuck in a circle of repetitive experiences, but about being able to integrate your environment into your thought process. In this sense, the comfort zone is one of the necessary learning tools. The nature of concentration determines your first reaction: if you strain to maintain concentration, then you are in a hard zone. If you are focused and relaxed, then you are in the soft zone. The hard zone is fragile and brittle dead wood, the soft zone is flexible grass. Involve external events in your mental flow.
- Downward spiral: if we fixate on a mistake, then we psychologically lag behind the passage of time, remain in the past - and do not notice the real danger. If you feel like you're in a downward spiral, take a break and do something to refresh your mind.
- The essence of the martial art of tuishou: the task is to upset the balance of the opponent. Attaching too great effort you lose your balance. It remains for the enemy to give you a slight impulse so that you fall.
- Technique of non-resistance, evasion of attacks: if aggression meets emptiness, it will self-destruct. Turn the attacker's aggression against him.
- Investing in Losing: You have to lose in order to learn how to win. Cultivating perfectionism interferes with learning. Failure teaches you how to win. A winning streak is worse than a loss. You begin to think about the image and are afraid of challenges, and defeat will take away self-confidence. Big fish in a small pond - this is what a talented person who is stuck on his successful tricks and small obstacles comes to. Don't be afraid of failure - learn by analyzing mistakes.
- The Pirsig method: "Start with one brick."
- Beginner mindset: Don't be afraid of failure, show humility, be open to new things.
- The principle of solving a large-scale problem through mini-components helps to improve.
Life and learning lessons
- If it seems to you that someone has made a strange decision, take a pause to see if there is a trap here.
- Lost to a worthy opponent? Make friends. Strong opponents help to grow, strengthen the spirit and love for the game.
- Learn to see the hidden potential of the void.
- Barriers are necessary: without them, progress stops. Improvement can only be achieved through maximum effort and resistance.
- Overload in learning, authoritarianism and coaching to win develop in the student nervous behavior, aggression, arrogance and vulnerability.
- Be patient and start learning from the basics. By skipping this stage to use quick spectacular moves, you will gain superficial knowledge and will not learn how to fight for victory.
- In the first place should be the love of the subject and the development of secrets, and competition - in the second. The most valuable thing in the game is the game itself: if you win, you need to focus on how much work is invested. If you lose, you need not a denial of importance, but sympathy, and then a gentle attempt to find out psychological reasons defeat. Later you need to parse technical errors.
- There is often a fine line between victory and defeat.
- Train yourself not to react to noise.
- Often we are defeated by the very psychology of the victim. Channel your emotions to improve your mood.
- Train the desire to solve the problem, not avoid it.
- If you go against your temper, best qualities and ability fades. Use it to enhance and develop your style. Know yourself through classes, use this information to personal growth. Do not destroy your / someone else's uniqueness. The style of champions is formed when they realize their advantages.
- Record "moves" and logic to understand and draw conclusions, to see what opportunities were hidden - so you can realize them fully next time.
- Psychological experiences are seen in the way to act.
- Cultivate optimistic competence.
- Focus on the inner essence of things, not on the outer manifestations.
- To become better at what you do, do something else - this will expand your vision and arsenal of techniques.
- Waiting is our life, have fun and make waiting interesting. If you are looking forward to something, then main point you will worry too much.
- Be prepared to face the imperfections of life. Do not suppress emotions, but use them to "turn on" creativity. In a calm state, you may find that you are stronger than your opponent. When the enemy does not recognize fair play, keep decency and keep cool, dodge illegal strikes.
- Train yourself so that creativity is possible even under severe pressure. Focus on progress, look for strong opponents. Critically reflect on experience, learn new things, improve skills.
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
Friends, what would I do without inquisitive readers of my blog?! :)
The bottom line is this: do not look for any external causes and explanations for the negative events and failures that happen to you (and even more so blame someone for this). The only useful attitude for our growth and development is when we try to understand what useful lesson we can learn from what happened? What do I need to do (and not "they / life / the state should...") to take responsibility for what happened, and become better, become stronger?
Internal locus of control = "internal decision" to take 100% responsibility for what happens to us.
2. "Peak Efficiency(Peak Performance) - of course, in the book it is very strongly felt that Josh is an athlete... And his approach to the internal energy of a person was initially purely sporty. This is the approach of "competitive mobilization", when you need to "get together and give your best", even at the cost of injuries and health spoiled for a long time.
By the way, many of Josh's ideas on "maximum performance" are very much in common with those set out in J. Eliot's book "Superachievements", which I did ;).
But, curiously, Josh was very beneficial :)) his attitude to energy (at the beginning of the career described in the book, and at the end) changes a lot. In fact, he comes to understand that in any activity there is some optimal(corresponding to the energy level of this particular activity) "soft zone"(or "comfort zone" as he calls it). The "soft zone" is not the maximum energy, but its necessary and sufficient level so that in a particular activity one can enter the "flow".
2.1. "The power of the present"(The Power of Presence) - if we formulate this principle in one phrase, then I would do it this way: it is necessary to positively accept the energy level of the situation in which we find ourselves.
To clarify, two little quotes from Josh (p. 168): 1) "Circumstances ALWAYS work out for the best"; 2) "If we have even the slightest hope of achieving perfection, we should not complain about the circumstances; we should get used to living in constant tension. Concentration should become as natural as breathing."
2.2. "soft zone" or "Personal comfort zone" (The Soft Zone) - ...again, in psychology there is a corresponding term: " resource state" :) . Let's explain.
Suppose we are performing our usual activities, systematically moving towards our goal. And - bang! - something bad happens. It can be anything: the opposition of opponents, external interference and circumstances, etc. This trouble naturally causes us stress and a variety of negative emotions.
But, nevertheless, we still need to move towards the completion of the goal, and we begin to tense up. We mobilize, gather our will into a fist, try to suppress negative emotions, get rid of distracting trifles, concentrate as much as possible, etc. In short, we drive ourselves into a "solid zone", which, in fact, is an energy overstrain, leading to exhaustion.
The "soft zone" consists in accepting and using (utilizing) those energies that have invaded your activity. Distracting little things, negative emotions, etc. is a resource that can and should be turned to achieve your goals.
And most importantly: ways to move from the "hard zone" to the "soft" can and should be trained, so to speak, "in peaceful conditions."
2.3. "downward spiral"(The Downward Spiral) is a very curious "glitch" of our consciousness, associated with an inadequate assessment of the situation and self-assessment of our strengths and abilities in this situation, which occurs if our consciousness is too driven by our emotions.
In the most paradoxical version, the "descending spiral" works like this: in a sports duel, you are head and shoulders above your opponent, and you are absolutely sure of your own victory. But at some point, you make a small mistake... After that, you inspire yourself: "It's okay, I still have a thousand chances to correct the situation!", and continue to act as if nothing had happened.
In essence, you keep the real picture of the situation out of your head, unconsciously choosing a more "optimistic" version of reality. Naturally, if we continue to act "as if everything is fine," then our next step will only make matters worse. But in the mind, by inertia, an optimistic reassessment of the situation remains! And we make the next "optimistic" decision, which takes us even further from reality ... And similarly, the "downward spiral" unfolds until our disconnection from reality naturally leads us to lose.
Josh describes how the "downward spiral" punishes those who are overly optimistic about the situation, go along with the positive emotions. But the downward spiral can also be fueled by negative emotions. Then we get the classic version of it, which in psychotherapy is called "self-fulfilling prophecy".
And one more thing: you can get out of the "downward spiral"! But not trying to return the situation to the usual tracks, but, for example, with the help of improvisation ( connecting "beginner's thinking" ;)).
2.4. stress and recovery(Stress and Recovery) is a rather banal, but true truth that high efficiency is the right rhythm, the right alternation of periods of work stress and rest / relaxation.
2.5.Create your own triggers(Building Your Trigger) - effective people differ from inefficient ones in that they can voluntarily move from the "hard zone" (voltage) to the "soft zone" (flow).
As a rule, in the life experience of each person there have already been some situations when he involuntarily found himself in the "soft zone". It is possible to analyze these situations and, on their basis, develop a certain sequence of actions ("tuning ritual"), which will naturally lead us to the "soft zone".
Initially, this ritual can be long and consist of many actions. But over time, this ritual can be significantly reduced both in time and in the number of ritual actions performed. Actually, a professional differs from an ordinary person only in that he arbitrarily uses some kind of microstimulus (trigger), like a snap of his fingers, to go into the "flow" state :).
/ In parentheses, we note that this technique has been known in psychology for a very, very long time :). Essentially, this formation conditioned reflex. In NLP this is called an "anchor". Very cool this method of self-regulation worked out by Hasai Aliyev, called "Key" /.
3. "The art of introspection"(The Art of Introspection). Introspection is one of the very first terms modern science psychology. In fact, introspection is ordinary self-observation elevated to the rank of scientific method.
Here it is important to understand the following: there are two fundamentally different states of consciousness. First, when we are immersed in activity, in solving some problem, then our consciousness is completely directed to the very object of activity and the accompanying situation. The actor himself (that is, we) usually remains, as it were, "behind the brackets", outside the focus of our consciousness. This is external observation (extraspection).
The second state of consciousness is focusing on oneself, on what and how I do, what I feel at the same time, what I want, what I think about, etc. etc. This is internal observation - self-observation (introspection).
These two states are opposite to each other. It is extremely difficult to combine them at one point in time ( although it is possible; but that's a mastery ;)). Remember the centipede joke? As soon as she tries to figure out how to rearrange all 40 legs (that is, turn on her introspection), she will simply get confused and fall, she will not be able to reach the goal. Directly in the process of achieving the goal, external observation is much more important than introspection (the excess of which can even be harmful). But AFTER reaching the goal, introspection ( "Debriefing" :))) is extremely useful, because helps you better understand your strengths and weak sides, outline directions for "pumping" your skills, etc.
3.1. "Listen first"(Listening First) - the basic skill of introspection - the ability to listen to yourself; subtly feel and understand your inner reaction to what you are doing.
Such "subtle listening" is not an end in itself. It should give an understanding of "what is good for me" and "what is bad for me." And this understanding, in turn, should form the basis of your own style of activity.
Here is a quote from the book: "The decisive factor in the success of my game ( chess - S.K.) became that her style fully corresponded to the peculiarities of my personality".
And one more thing (p. 88): "When learning something new, it is important not to destroy the basis of your personality, not to lose your own uniqueness, your style."
This principle can be applied not only to your self-study ( "First of all, listen to yourself subtly"), but also as a basis for teaching/coaching other people ( "First of all, be able to listen and understand the student's reactions"). By the way, there are a lot of interesting examples in the book about Josh working with coaches, some of whom tried to break his uniqueness, remake him "right" (usually nothing good came of this). But others behaved like real coaches: they tried to understand him individual style, started with questions, pushed for independent decisions, etc.
3.2. "love the game"(Loving the Game) - there is a very interesting metaphor in the book: in childhood, when we want to achieve some goal, we do it during the game. And since this is a game, then the word "impossible" does not exist for us, we are not afraid to improvise and experiment, we connect our imagination to achieve the goal and that's it. Creative skills. And even if something does not work out, we treat it as a game failure - we didn't succeed :). And we are ready to continue to strive to achieve the goal ...
When we become adults, the achievement of a goal becomes a very important and responsible matter for us, associated with tension and stress ( see section 2.2. about the "hard zone"). We are afraid of making a mistake, we are afraid of failure, our imagination is blocked because "we are serious people, and we can not afford any nonsense" :(.
What is the essence of metaphor? In childhood, the path to the goal is like a wide bridge - the width of a children's playground - along which one can easily and without fear reach victory, the result. For an adult, the path to the goal is like a rope stretched over an abyss, walking along which is risky, difficult and scary. And success is by no means guaranteed.
This does not mean that we all urgently need to fall into childhood :). The game ("playful carelessness") in itself is irrational; those. in conditions of strict determination (at competitions, for example), it is not the best strategy behavior. Josh suggests that the middle ground between "tension" and "playful nonchalance" is what he calls " optimistic competence".
"Optimistic competence" - the ability to perceive one's activities in a detached way ( introspectively!), from the outside, as a kind of game - a sequence of actions, moves, rules, etc. Moreover, this game can always be improved, the rules corrected :), etc. You will only be successful if you treat your activity like a favorite game.
3.3. "Break down the walls(Breaking Down Walls) - the idea, again, is not new :) Its essence is that our efficiency in our core activities is affected by the state of affairs that exists in our other areas of life. For example, family conflicts can negatively impact our relationships with work colleagues or clients. Or vice versa, unrequited love inspires us to outstanding sports achivments or poetic masterpieces :).
As I already noted, the book is very subjective - it contains a lot of examples of the interweaving of "personal" and "professional" from the personal life of the author. But here the most important thing is something else: how to respond to all these interlacings? In essence, Josh's answer is to integrate ("break down the walls"), unify all parts of your life! Any part of our life, even problematic, should become a valuable resource ( see clause 1.4. about recycling), which helps us in our core business.
From myself, I note that in general the idea is correct ... But sometimes such integration can be technically complex, requiring real psychotherapy. And in some cases, it is still easier to isolate certain parts of our life/personality from the main activity than to "call for service" (utilize) in favor of efficiency in the main activity.
3.4.Intuition: develop your inner compass(Intuition: Developing The Internal Compass).
Quote (p. 142): " Main idea ( maximum efficiency - S.K.) is to transfer the leading role from consciousness to subconsciousness without falling into a trance and losing the clarity of thinking provided by consciousness".
Josh has an excellent understanding of intuition, which is fully consistent with modern scientific understanding: intuition is the ability to make quick decisions based on a qualitative "convolution" of large amounts of information ( see treatises on cognitive psychology - about nested schemas, semantic networks, heuristics, etc. ;))). Josh does not write so abstrusely :), but in chapters 13-14 of the book there are excellent examples of how it all works in a sports match :).
At the same time, it is also important to understand that intuition does not arise by itself: a) it relies on basic skills worked out “to automatism”; b) it relies on regular introspective analysis of its own activities; c) for its "turning on" the correct energy level of activity is necessary.
3.5.The Middle Way: Exploring the Gray Zone(The Middle Way: Navigating Greyness).
The "grey zone" is our potential; it's "challenges" it's who we could be, what we could achieve. The "gray zone" is not only the possible outcomes, it is also the possible skills, techniques, strategies, etc.
Exhaustive quote (p. 95 - 96): " From my point of view, learning and creativity is the knowledge of the unknown, pushing the limits of that gray zone that is beyond the area of the known. To do this, one must strike a balance between relentlessly pushing oneself forward and the danger of prematurely deflated. In order for the muscles and mind to develop, it is necessary to load them, but if you overdo it, you can overstrain. An athlete must focus on progress, constantly look for stronger and stronger opponents in order to develop himself; but it is also necessary to constantly win, otherwise you can lose self-confidence. Sometimes it is worth critically evaluating the accumulated experience in order to immerse yourself in the study of new data; but it is important not to go too far and not to lose the abilities and inclinations given by nature. Vibrant, creative idealism must be balanced with a practical, professional approach.".
I defined this "middle way" for myself as a balance between "being yourself" (i.e. achieving success, results due to proven skills, due to acquired skills) and "being not-yourself" (i.e. taking risks, trying new; and new "heights" where success is not guaranteed, and new skills that may not "go" at all). I think it's important for self-development...
4. "advanced learning"(Advanced Learning) - these are mechanisms / tools that are related to the development of the basic technical elements of any skill - basic skills.
/By the way, many of Josh Waitzkin's ideas on skills development overlap with those in the book "From Knowledge to Skills", which I also /.
4.1. The importance of basic principles(Master the Fundamentals).
The book begins with a cool epigraph (p. 11): " Some people are able to understand the principle of action by thoroughly studying just one object or event ... Objects and people are subject to the same rule. If you understand one thing, you will understand the other, at least in basic and general terms.". (Er Cheng Yishi, XI century)
And another quote (p. 126): " In areas of activity with high level success in competition can be achieved if you have a little more efficient technique than competitors. People climb to the very top not thanks to the knowledge of secret tricks, but rather due to the perfect mastery of their basic set.".
And a little clarification: by "basic principles" Josh means perfectly CORRECT ( those. conforming to certain rules, criteria), brought to full automatism, the performance of basic skills in any type of activity.
4.2.Learning big through small things(Learning the Macro From the Micro).
Quote (p. 119): " The principle of learning is to immerse yourself in the mysterious magic of details and, based on them, isolate the factors that determine the whole picture. Our common problem is that there is an attention deficit in the world."
The Lord God (or the devil)), as you know, is in the details ... A professional differs from a non-professional by a greater differentiation of the picture of the world. An ordinary person knows a couple of dozen colors, and an artist or designer - a few hundred. The consciousness of the master perceives reality (and his own activity) more accurately, more detailed.
Principle effective learning= strive to understand the "subtleties", to increase the cognitive complexity of one's picture of the world. In the book, Josh describes very well how it works in chess, and especially in martial arts. In order to defeat the opponent, it is enough for the master to catch the moment when he blinked, or shifted the center of gravity of the body literally by a centimeter. But you need to notice this first :). So we develop observation and attention to detail. At the same time, we do not forget to analyze and comprehend them in the spirit of the "main principles" (see clause 4.1.).
4.3. "Make shrinking circles"(Making Smaller Circles; translated in the book as "make small circles" :)).
In fact, we are talking about a step-by-step, element-by-element mastering of any skills or abilities ( see chapter 11 of the book for details). I formulated the idea of "shrinking circles" for myself as follows:
- learn TRUE the simplest basic technique
- catch the right inner feeling when performing it
- repeat many times, bring to automatism
- gradually begin to vary the performance of the basic technique, connect new elements to it
- concentrate as much as possible on the "little things", on some new sensations / results that arise when varying the technique
- find the best (corresponding to your style of activity) technique option
- remember that the depth of the base defeats the breadth;)
4.4. "Learning numbers to forget about numbers" (Numbers to Leave Numbers). This is a fairly simple idea related to the automation of our self-control when performing certain actions.
When we are just learning an action, we need maximum self-control: we concentrate as much as possible on each element of this action; control the sequence of necessary steps; we even say some important points in our minds :). For example, novice chess players know that each chess piece has its own value, and in each new position they try to literally calculate this value. But as the skill grows, there is an understanding that the value of the pieces on the board is a relative value, and depends on many other systemic factors.
These "systemic factors" are some general principles / patterns / meanings, the understanding of which arises as experience is accumulated due to the integrating work of consciousness (introspection) and the subconscious ( see point 3.4. about intuition).
Ideally (with the maximum development of the action and understanding of its general principles), we find ourselves "in the flow" ( see item 2), when self-control of the correctness of what we are doing is carried out at the highest intuitive level. From the point of view of internal energy, such "flow self-control" is much more economical than the "step-by-step self-control" used by beginners.
4.5. "Tie it all together(Bringing It All Together). And again an idea that is not new :). In fact, in his book, Josh Waitzkin proposed a "model for assembly" - a set of techniques for self-development in bulk :).
There are more than enough technicians, it remains only to choose something suitable for yourself from them, and on their basis create personal development trajectory/ self-learning. For example, it might look like this:
1) Start with what interests you, what you like to do
2) Start with the simplest skills. Take your time, lay a solid foundation; polish these skills to complete :) perfection.
"Phew, the text turned out to be long, but I actually recounted all the main "chips" from the book "The Art of Learning" ;). Now all this can be presented in the form of a simple plate on one page:
But, nevertheless, I still recommend reading the book, because. it has a lot of interesting ideas that were not included in my retelling / tablet - for example, about "learning Yin-Yang"; about how to dominate in any power interaction (not only at sports competitions, but, for example, in business negotiations), etc.
If you liked / found this text useful, be sure!
This is the autobiography of Joshua Waitzkin, who won his first national chess championship at the age of 9 and became the world champion in the martial art of tai chi at 28.
How did he manage to achieve such a result in completely different sports disciplines?
Joshua himself doesn't think he's the best at chess or the best at tai chi. He says, "I'm the best at learning." In this book, he shares his story and learning principles that helped him rise to the top twice. It's not just history outstanding person, but also proof that any victories and achievements - up to the championship level - are achieved through the right lifestyle, the right habits and mental attitudes, and not innate talents.
This is a book for those who want to learn something new or become #1 in their field.
Here is the autobiography of Josh Waitzkin, the man who won his first national chess championship at age 9 and became the world champion in the martial art of tai chi at 28. But it's not just history. outstanding personality, but also proof that any victories and achievements, up to the championship title, are achieved thanks to the right lifestyle, the right habits and psychological attitudes, and not innate talents.
about the author
Joshua Waitzkin was born in New York, USA. From a young age, he showed extraordinary abilities for chess, at the age of six he sat down at the chessboard for the first time, and already at 9 he won his first championship. Eight times the child prodigy became the champion of the United States. In 1988, he tied with Garry Kasparov himself, when 59 American teenagers fought the grandmaster during a simultaneous game session (57 lost).
True, the status of an international master became the pinnacle of the chess career of a child prodigy. In this, he blames the fame that fell on him after the film adaptation of "In Search of Bob Fischer": "I had to lead a social life and sign autographs, instead of studying chess games." Today, the chess player trains young talents online at the Josh Waitzkin Academy and rarely takes part in rating games.
Waitzkin's new passion in the late 1990s was the martial arts of taijiquan and jiu-jitsu. He began to study, as they say, for himself, but after a while he reached a qualification worthy of a public demonstration. As a result, Josh won many victories in national competitions and won medals in world taijiquan championships.
Interestingly, Waitzkin now claims that he was not born a chess genius or especially talented in martial arts. “But my main asset was the ability to learn, which allowed me to achieve good results,” the champion assures in his autobiography “The Art of Learning” (“The Art of Learning”), which he published in 2007.