The Art of Learning
Author: Josh Waitzkin
A memoir and framework for mastery from a chess prodigy turned martial arts world champion. Waitzkin distills the principles that enabled him to reach elite performance in two completely different disciplines.
Why This Book Matters to Me
Waitzkin’s framework for mastery directly informs how I think about coaching, learning, and performance under pressure. A few concepts I keep returning to:
- Making Smaller Circles: How do you go deep rather than broad? When does refinement beat accumulation?
- Investment in Loss: How do you use failure as a training ground rather than an ego threat?
- Stress and Recovery: How do you build sustainable intensity without burning out?
The idea that mental resilience is a trainable skill—that you can become “psychologically impregnable” through deliberate practice in discomfort—changed how I approach challenges.
Core Principles
“Depth beats breadth any day of the week, because it opens a channel for the intangible, unconscious, creative components of our hidden potential.”
“The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick.”
“In performance training, first we learn to flow with whatever comes. Then we learn to use whatever comes to our advantage. Finally, we learn to be completely self-sufficient and create our own earthquakes.”
On Building Resilience
Mental resilience is arguably the most critical trait of a world-class performer, and it should be nurtured continuously:
“When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. When injured, I try to avoid painkillers and to change the sensation of pain into a feeling that is not necessarily negative. My instinct is always to seek out challenges as opposed to avoiding them.”
The entity theorists—those who believe talent is fixed—were dispirited by hard problems and foundered. Some of the most gifted players are the worst under pressure, with the hardest time rebounding from defeat.
“Their confidence is fragile. Losing is always a crisis instead of an opportunity for growth.”
On Making Smaller Circles
This concept has been critical in both chess and martial arts. Players tend to get attached to fancy techniques and fail to recognize that subtle internalization and refinement is much more important than the quantity of what is learned.
“First, we have to learn to be at peace with imperfection.”
When aiming for the top, your path requires an engaged, searching mind. You have to make obstacles spur you to creative new angles in the learning process. Let setbacks deepen your resolve. You should always come off an injury or a loss better than when you went down.
On The Jordan Principle
Consider Michael Jordan. It is common knowledge that Jordan made more last-minute shots to win the game for his team than any other player in the history of the NBA.
What is not so well known is that Jordan also missed more last-minute shots to lose the game for his team than any other player in the history of the game.
“What made him the greatest was not perfection, but a willingness to put himself on the line as a way of life.”
On Presence and Performance
Much of what separates the great from the very good is deep presence—relaxation of the conscious mind, which allows the unconscious to flow unhindered.
“In every discipline, the ability to be clearheaded, present, cool under fire is much of what separates the best from the mediocre.”
The notion that you don’t have to hold yourself in a state of feverish concentration every second was a huge liberation. If you are interested in really improving as a performer, incorporate the rhythm of stress and recovery into all aspects of your life.
The Bottom Line
The setbacks taught Waitzkin how to succeed. What kept him on his path was a love for learning that has its roots in his first chess lessons as a six-year-old boy. Great teaching nurtures love for the game—never letting technical material smother innate feeling. The goal is to become a free-flowing performer, unblocked by psychological issues and hungering for creative leaps.