Thinking books · Learning how to learn · Josh Waitzkin, 2007

The Art of Learning — the big ideas

A chess prodigy turned martial arts competitor on how he learned to learn.

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The big ideas

Learning the endgame first — the smallest number of pieces — before the opening: mastering a stripped-down version of a problem teaches principles that the full version obscures.

Making smaller circles: taking a technique you already have and refining it until it works with less and less, rather than collecting more techniques.

Performance under pressure is trained, not hoped for. He builds routines deliberately and then shortens them so they can be triggered anywhere.

Practise it — no need to have read it

Take a skill you are learning. Find the simplest possible version of it — fewest moving parts — and work only that for a week.

A hint: The temptation is always to practise the full impressive version. It teaches less.

Where it shows up in real life

• Any craft
• Performing under pressure
• Depth rather than collection

Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.