![]() It could translate to another kind of game." That's not to say, of course, that mastering golf would prepare someone for mathematics, Greene says, "but it would translate to another physical skill. Learning any kind of skill, Greene writes, deeply prepares you for mastery. One of the more interesting concepts introduced early on in the book is the idea that there is great value to be taken from mastering nearly anything. This explanation sat well with me, especially after I read Mastery. I think playing musical instruments my whole life has refined the same skill set used in games." They both require finger dexterity and creative problem-solving. The tuba has three valves, a game controller has significantly more, but you can approach them in fundamentally the same way. "Games something to master," he said, "something to play around with and subdue in order to make them sound good. Killingsworth's response was that he has always approached games the same way he approaches learning musical instruments. Every activity of man is amazingly complicated, not only that of the genius: but none is a 'miracle.'" -Friedrich Nietzsche, as quoted in Robert Greene's MasteryGreene characterizes his approach as "more democratic" than Gladwell's. Genius too does nothing but learn first how to lay bricks then how to build, and continually seek for material and continually form itself around it. Thus our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius: for only if we think of him as being very remote from us, as a miraculum, does he not aggrieve us. "Because we think well of ourselves, but nonetheless suppose ourselves capable of producing a painting like one of Raphael's or a dramatic scene like one of Shakespeare's, we convince ourselves that the capacity to do so is quite extraordinarily marvelous, a wholly uncommon accident, or, if we are still religiously inclined, a mercy from on high. The new narrative is that people with incredible skills made it to where they are through a combination of hard work and convenient circumstances. Books like Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers have begun dissecting those people previously held up as near-mythical giants – the Albert Einsteins and Bill Gates of the world – and making the case that while they may be something special, they weren't necessarily born that way. With his argument, Greene is continuing a narrative that has been picking up steam for a long time in Western culture. Greene uses these narratives to build up one very important argument: Geniuses, as we understand them, are not real. The story of the famous saxophonist John Coltrane is used to illustrate the importance of apprenticeships and practice a condensed biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart leads into admonishments from Greene about the importance of rebelling against authority and maintaining a childlike sense of wonder.Īs with all of Greene's books, readers will pick up some lessons worth considering while learning some fun bits of history along the way. Greene, in his usual style, introduces every chapter with a story pulled from the life of one of these figures, then analyzes the story and extracts valuable lessons from them. In the new book, Greene develops a theory about how mastery is formed by looking at the lives of people like Frank Lloyd Wright, Leonardo da Vinci and Henry Ford – people who became true masters of their respective fields of study. I called Robert Greene, best-selling author of The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction, to talk about his new book, Mastery. Intrigued by the development in my reaction speed, I began to wonder why my abilities were improving so rapidly.
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