THE ART of LEARNING

By Josh Waitzkin
INTRODUCTION
One has to investigate the principle on one thing or event exhaustively. Things and self are governed by
the same principle. If you understand one, you understand the other.
The way of learning each subject is familiar. We study technique, principles, and theory until they are
integrated into the unconscious. Different aspects that are different may become converge in your
mind. We translate one aspect to the others as if it's connected.
As I cultivated openness to these connections, my life became flooded with intense learning
experiences.
After several years of cloudiness, I was flying free, devouring information, completely in love with
learning.
***
Critical to growth: numbers to leave numbers; form to leave forms. When a foundation is so deeply
internalized that it's no longer consciously considered, but it's lived. This process continuously cycle
along as deeper layers of the art are soaked in.
So, themes must be internalized, lived by and forgotten.
It needs incremental steps and systematic methodology of learning.
PART 1
THE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 1
Innocent Moves
Whenever I made a fundamental error, he would mention the principle I had violated. Learn more
discipline without dampening my love for things or suppressing my natural voice.
Are there other ways to accomplish the same aim?
A good teacher gives foundation of critical principles and systematic understanding of analysis and
calculation; the most important factor of study is that the love and never let technical material smother
your innate feeling for the game.
It's about learning and passion first, and competition a distant second.
CHAPTER 2
Losing to Win
When we make mistakes, we have choice of completely self-destructing or trying to fight back.
Confidence is important, but overconfidence is bad.
***
Tiny little breaks from competitive intensity has been integral part of success; putting things back in
perspectives and be more creative.
Tiny little breaks give you new ideas, full tank of energy and determination.
When things go hard or difficult, we need to step back (lower our expectation, standard, etc). Work
harder than we can is bad, because of the stress and the expectation grows rapidly.
CHAPTER 3
Two Approaches to Learning
In any competitive field same things happen, there are huge expectations, wild competitiveness and
little realistic possibility.

The questions: what's the difference to allow you become the top and what's the point?
An approach that inspire resilience, the ability to make connections between diverse pursuits and dayto-day enjoyment of process.
There are two different approach: learning and entity theorist.
Learning theorists focus on process such as: work hard, step by step, incrementally.
When challanged by difficult material, learning theorists are far more likely to rise the level of the
game, not prone to quit.
Learning theorists who associate success with hard work tend to have mastery-oriented response.
Perfectionist or entity tend to have the hardest time rebounding from defeat, they think about talent, etc.
The key to success is to make long term learning process and not to live in a shell of static, discover the
lessons learned from the pursuit of excellence mean much more than the immediate trophies and glory.
In the long run, painful losses may prove more valuable than wins (with healthy attitude and able to
draw wisdom from every experience). The real challange is to stay in long term perspectives.
***
Start with easy one, and keeps going incrementally. Keep practicing, so you can internalize
methodology of learning (the play between knowledge, intuition and creativity). Always take lesson
from your practice, winning and losing.
Entity just look at the results, it becomes two dimensions: winning or losing. Losing is always bad for
entity because they never look at the process and never learn.
CHAPTER 4
Loving the Game
One of the most critical strengths of superior competitor in any discipline is the ability to dictate the
tone of the battle. Adding your personal touch to the subcject will make you love the subject more.
It's important to maintain healthy perspective on the subject (winning and losing), but don't get me
wrong, losing is brutal. Don't forget about the process involved.
We need to be psychologically prepared to face the unavoidable challanges along our way.
How can we balance long term process with short term goals? We should praise the process. If we lose,
things are bit more complicated, you need to "fix" your feelings and self-esteem too.
Growth comes at the point of resistance, when we do our best, we learn by pushing ourselves.
***
Achievements/success had little to do with happiness or long term success. When you have passion
about smthg, it's easier to learn about it, although you don't like part of it.
CHAPTER 5
The Soft Zone
"Lose Yourself"
When you really concentrate on doing things, let yourself lose. You lose the sense of time, everything.
***
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, so explosive
inspirations without the need for outside stimulus.
Envision the zone as your performance state. For ex, you concentrate on the task at hand (to find
solution, etc), then smthg happens (distraction). When you fight the distraction it's called hard zone.
But when you work with the flow it's called soft zone.
You flow with whatever comems, integrating every ripple of life into your creative moment.
Soft zone base success on cultivated resilience that work with the flow.
We know we can't block all the distraction, the more we block the louder it would get. So, we should
become at peace with the distraction.

Mental resiliance is the most critical trait of world-class performer. When uncomfortable, my instinct is
not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it.
When you know you can become peace with smthg, you can start the things to create creative minds
(as advantage).
CHAPTER 6
The Downward Spiral
The importance of regaining presence and clarity of mind after making a serious error. The first
mistake rarely proves disastrous, but the downward spiral of the next errors creates a devestatung chain
reaction.
There is a shift in psychological advantage (momentum). When it's good momentum, you ride it. When
it's bad, snap back into a fresh presence of clarity of mind.
Downward spiral can come to you at different variation, especially when you reject the reality,
overconfident. We know that at high level, pressing for wins in equal positions often results in losing.
When you get problem, don't forget to come back (improvise) on track. Problem shouldn't trigger fear
or confusion that muddies the decision-making process.
When you realize you're in downward spiral, calm down by taking breath or refreshing.
First mistake should be the wake-up alarm to improve, not to do the second mistake.
CHAPTER 7
Changing Voice
There are transitions in life, we should tackle it well, so it won't affect our performance. In order to get
new knowledge manifest, we need to empty our bottle. Keep practicing, so it can manifest.
CHAPTER 8
Breaking Stallions
Adult is not like child. Child doesn't really care about the risk involved. When they fail, they will just
get up and back again.
In order to be success, we need to become like a child. We need to try new ideas, release our current
knowledge to take in new information-- it's critical to integrate this new info in a manner that does not
violate who we are.
The human mind defines things in relation to one another-learn this from that. The path to artistic
insight in one direction often involves deep study of another.
***
It's ok to work hard but don't let the love of the game and your natural voice disappeear. If you distance
yourself from your natural voice, you will stop trusting your intuition. You feel alienated, lack an inner
compass.
PART 2
MY SECOND PART
CHAPTER 9
Beginner's Mind
Focus on what's really important for you, not what we are told is important.
***
Lower your expectation and achieve what's important first. Do what's important first and it's ok to be
imperfect especially when you start smthg.
Keep practicing until it internalize you.

CHAPTER 10
Investment in Loss
We need to know if what we should do are against our purpose. If it's against our purpose, we need to
rethink about it carefully.
Investment in loss is giving yourself to the learning process. Some people are unable to improve
because of a fear of releasing old habits. They are locked up by the need to be correct. The point is to
minimize wrong repetition as much as possible, by having an eye for consistent psychological and
technical themes of error.
People who don't learn from the mistakes and practice with a desperate need to win, to be right, to have
everything under control are hard to master smthg.
Investment in loss is helpful to raise the level of the game.
***
In every aspects, beginner's mind and investment in loss are part of the game. Learners at this stage are
vulnerable, allow yourself protected periods for cultivation. For ex, a chess player who learn new
opening technique. He needs time to internalize the new skills before he will improve.
When the expectations is high (yours or others), it's hard to have beginner's mind. It's like no room for
improvement.
We must take responsibility to ourself, and not expect the rest of the world to understand what it takes
to become the best that we can become.
CHAPTER 11
Making Smaller Circles
Essential principles lying at the hearts of connecting different subjects.
A girl is asked to write about the hometown 500 words, she can't, she has no idea what to write. But the
assignment is changed, she has to write about the opera house from the left brick, she can write a lot.
***
Everyone races to learn more and more, but nothing is done deeply. Things look pretty but they are
superficial, without principled foundation. Nothing is learned at high level which less valueable.
Keep practicing with reduced complexity so we can do it again and again. When we learn the complete
game, it's to difficult because we are preoccupied with not blundering.
Step by step, more and more complicated.
After we learn smthg, we try to integrate it with our initial knowledge.
***
Making smaller circles means we divide what's most important. Then do the important first, step by
step gradually increase the difficulty. Each part has its time to develop.
We need to do it correctly but slowly after that we get the speed. After lot of practicing, try to do with
the feeling. Move faster while maintaining the feeling.
***
In any subject, players tend to get attached to fancy techniques and fail to recognize that subtle
internalization and refinement is much more important than quantity.
You need to be very good on what you know. Depth beats breadth because it opens a channel for the
intangible, unconscious, creative components of our hidden potential.
CHAPTER 12
Using adversity
When we know nothing about the technique involved and watch the video, we don't get the real
information. The real information should be watched very carefully and analyzed.
***
Three steps of softzone:

1. Being peace with imperfection

2. To use that imperfection into our advantage
3. It pertains to performance psychology. So we don't need any external conditions to inspire us.
***
The important things for performers are both internal and external stuff. Internal stuff such as: feelings,
virtualize are often neglected.
It's the internal stuff that makes thing click, but it's easy to lose focus on what's important.
When we try to improve our weakness, our strength will takes care itself.
Virtualization is like practing but inside your mind, thinking about any possibilities that might happen
and react.
***
Performers always try to minimize the margin of error. If I want to be the best, I have to take risks
others would avoid, alwaus optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to
my advantage.
When aiming for the top, let obstacles spur you to creative new angles in the learning process, in order
to raise the level of the game which is called internal solution.
CHAPTER 13
Slowing Down Time
Once we reach a certain level of expertise at a given discipline and our knowledge is expansive, the
critical issue become: how is all this stuff navigated and put to use?
How I could consistently make my perception of time be different from my opponents? The use of
intuition. It's the bridge between conscious and unconciousness.
For ex, the better chess player is easier to remember chess patterns. Why? Because his ability to
connect logical patterns between the pieces.
*note: start with fundamentals, get solid foundation by understanding the principles. Then expand and
refine your repertoire, guided by your individual predispositions, while keeping in touch with what you
feel to be essential core of the art.
It's not like the time is slowing, but our thinking is faster because we already internalize the process.
When you learn more, you create more layer of understanding. For ex, driving. When we wanna stop,
automatically we pull of the gas, push the break and the pedal.
The idea is to shift the primary role from the conscious to the uncoscious without losing the precision
the conscious can provide.
More internalized knowledge is like seeing and doing much more than less knowledge one.
Your conscious mind is free to focus on certain tasks, while your unconscious navigate huge network
of techincal details.
The idea is conscious mind have its capacity, so we can't use it more than that. However, if we use
smaller data it can fit more.
CHAPTER 14
The Illusion of the Mystical
"If the opponent's movement is quick,
Then quickly respond;
If his movement is slow,
Then follow slowly"
"If the opponent doesn't move, then I do not move.
At the opponent's slightest move, I move first"

The question: how do you move before someone you're following?

Reading and ultimately controlling intention. The deepest form of shadowing involves a switching of
roles, where the follower becomes the followed in a relationship in which time seems to twist.
***
Observation is crucial to know the enemy. The reaction to surprise? The need for control?
After we know the reaction of our enemy, we can predict its movement, we can make the enemy
blundering by setting a trap.
***
A tricky man may plants memory to unconscious mind so he can control others action.
***
When the person realizes that his ego is being manipulated, he will be more carefully and our plans are
likely to fail. So you have to operate beneath his radar (without him knowing).
Making smaller circles through incremental training, your unconscious understanding of your
discipline of choice has become sufficiently advanced, so the unconscious mind will focus on techincal
while the conscious mind focus on technical components of your enemy, then attack the weakness or
set a trap.
These tricks can be applied on every aspects. It's essential to understand the technical foundation.
PART 3
Bringing It All Together
CHAPTER 15
The Power of Presence
The predator and the prey. I used to create chaos on the chess-board until my opponents crumbled from
the pressure. I loved the unknown, the questions. But people wanted answers, where there were no
answers. I was home and they were terrified. The game is mine.
The only thing I should do is to become immune to the pain, embrace as if I were taking a walk in a
lovely park.
We need to learn how to maintain our weakness and become peace with it.
We cannot expect to become excellence of "going through motions" is the norm of our lives. We need
to be in deep, fluid presence becomes second nature.
Everything is always on the line, so we must maximize each moment's creative potential.
CHAPTER 16
Searching for the Zone
We have our on and off day. When it's on, there's no prob. But when it's off, we need to find a way so
we are still presence.
For the softzone, you train youself to deal with bad conditions, use them to your advantage or to make
you happy.
Consistency is always a problem for everyone, we need to focus on the long term, healthy and selfsustaining peak performance.
Learning and performances are universal. If you hone your learning skill, you'll get better
performances.
***
The concept of stress and recovery. We can't maintain our laser focus for a long time. Some tiny breaks
will loose our stress and recover, in order to have more focus.
Gathering and release of intensity, the better we are at recovering, the greater potential we have to
endure and perform under stress.

This is about the connection of body and mental to reduce mental stress. We need to do exercise with
interval for recovery. The more you practice, the less recovery time needed to recover.
And the shorter time needed for our recovery, it's hardly noticeable from observers.
***
Whenever you feel out of mind (loss of focus) during the training, take a tiny break immedietly. The
tiny break could be few mins till few seconds.
As we get better at releasing tension and coming back with full tank of gas in our activities, we will
gain confidence.
Interval work is a critical building block to becoming a consistent long-term performer. If you spend a
few months praticing stress and recovery in every day life, you'll become a resilient and dependable
pressure player.
CHAPTER 17
Building Your Trigger
One of the biggest prob to releasing the tension during breaks of learning is the fear of whether we will
be able to get the focus back?
The tendency of learners to exhaust themeselves is very self-destructive. At higher level, the ability to
rest and recover is critical.
Any activities including: big tournaments have lot of downtime between events (matches). Some
people keep themselves in state of alertness, nervous, panic that they won't be ready. The solution is we
have to be good at waiting and love it.
***
When you are busy anticipating the events (panic), you feel depressed mentally because your minds
don't rest.
To have success in crunch time, you need to integrate certain healthy patterns into day-to-day life so
that they are completely natural to you when the pressure is on. These routine patterns usually is used
to get good frame of mind before the competition.
Ask yourself when you get serena focus? For ex, eating. The next step is to create 4-5 steps routine, for
ex: listening to music, medication, stretching, reading, take a bath.
Medication just follow your breath, and takes off your mind (try, it's ok to do badly to reduce stress at
least and return the breathe).
Do the routine over and over to internalize it. Before doing any events, do the routine so you will be in
good-shape. Reducing one or two items will still give you more shape than just not doing anything.
How to do the routine if the time is little tight?
It's about incremental growth. We repeat things over and over. We change pattern, shorter the time
incrementally. At high level, these can be done in mind without moving at all. It should be flexible, if
there's enough time do it completely, if there's less time do whatever routine you can do and some of
them do in your mind.
CHAPTER 18
Making Sandals
"To walk a thory road, we may cover its every inch with leather or we can make sandals"
Emotions are part of our lives. Elite performers use emotion, observing their moment and then
channeling everything into a deeper focus that generates uniquely flavored creativity. It's resilient
approach based on flexibility and introspective awareness.
3 steps of self sufficient performance:
A. Learn to flow with distraction
B. Learn to use distraction as our advantage
C. Re-create the inspiring setting internally.

The first step is to recognize the prob is ours (don't doubt it). There are always cheaters in this world.
Stay cool and learn to deal with it.
There are two components to this work:
A. Approach to learning. I have to develop the habit of taking on my technical weakness whenever
someone pushed our limits, instead of self protective.
B. Performance side. It's about acceptance, we must be prepared for imperfection.
***
Greatest performers convert their passion into fuel with tremendous consistency. Enemies provocation
can be used as fuel to achieve, so if you're playing, provocation is not always good decision.
***
Use three steps described with your emotions. Your emotion must be true, no denial.
***
Tigran Petrosian has observed his feeling. When he feels confident, he will play aggresively. When he
feels insecure, he will play defensively. He believes that if his mood and chess position are in synch, he
will be most inclined to play with the greatest inspiration.
When kasparov lose confidence, his chess play will make him confident. Confidence will make his
chess play awesome.
We cultivate the soft zone. We sit with our emotions, observe them, learn how to let them float away.
We trun our weakness into strength until there's no denial.
CHAPTER 19
Bringing It All Together
We have our own areas of stability and others in which we are wobbly. The greatest artists and
competitors are masters of navigating their own psychologies, playing on their strengths, controlling
the tone of battles that it fits with their persenalities.
The real art in learning takes place as we move beyond proficiency, when our work becomes an
expression of our essence.
JW learns from the video. He sees every detail step by step. Keep practicing the detail until it
internalize (slow motion repetitions).
Making smallers circles (1 technique or idea and practice it until we feel the essence; we gradually
increase the while maintain the power, until it's nearly invisible arsenal), slowing down time (focus on
technique and internalize them until the mind perceives them in tremendous detail; more frames in the
same equal amount of time), and the illusion of the mystical (use the last 2 principles to control the
intention of the opponent) is the research and development stage.
Once we have felt the refinement of a skill, no matter how small it may be, we can use that feeling as
beacon of quality as we expand our focus on to more material.
At high level competition, the one who dictate the tone of the battle is the winner. Champions are
specialists whose styles emerge from profound awareness of their unique strengths, and who skilled at
guiding the battle in that direction.
Watching yourself on video, so you can observe yourself, such as: bad habits, refine techniques by
breaking down what works and what doesn't.
Chess expert who have his most inspired day he would come up with ideas that would blow his mind
and the minds of others at his level. However, masters would shrug and explain the principles behind
the inspired move. This is why GM can play speed chess games. They have internalized such patterns.
Creativity is always in relation to a foundation. Creativity creates more knowledge based on previous
foundation, we need to know about the principles of this creativity. If we find another creativity, look
for the principles behind it.
The new knowledge based on the our crearivity, observation, and knowledge are very personal.

CHAPTER 20
TAIWAN
Last 3 months, JW have worked very hard. 40 hours before match, he feels alive and ready.
***
Day before the match, there's major change in the rules which is a real disadvantage. At 1A.M, JW are
up exploring the nuances of this new structure and makes a plan. Then he lays in bed visualizing until
3AM.
In the morning, they refine new strategies. The key is to roll with evolving situation and contour new
tactics around the principles we had discovered back home. Tactics and surprises come easy once
principles are in the blood.
Day 1
After all the registration done, JW checks the ring. Try to feel every detail.
JW knows his weakness and he works for it, trying to find a solution. His weakness has blossomed into
a weapon that would prove critical for him. JW studies a technique deeply, and he dictates battle, so he
can use the technique.
JW learns about the competitor, looking for flaw and weakness. He realizes that the competitor is a bit
odd, as if he hides smthg.
Day 2
He did a lot of interval training, building sprint time in the ring and working on recovery. The recovery
may takes 1 min.
The referee tries to "win" the local. As a foreigner, you'll be angry, upset and disapointed which lead to
aggressive play, his game falls apart and lose (downward spiral).
The referee gives warning although JW doesn't make any fouls, he just smiles.
It feels the moevement is slower at mind (more frame per time because it's already internalized). JW
tries to dictate the opponent intentions, but it seems the opponent knows.
JW use his conscious to observe the opponent, while his unconscious work with technical.
***
Analyze the opponent before the match, to get info about the reaction of the opponent, and make a
plan.
During the break, JW listens to the music to get some recovery. Not stressed by the competition and as
a trigger routine.
Fixed step world championship finals
During the match, it's really important to focus on the match and strategy, the other things have less
priorities such as: yelling at the referee, etc.
Moving step finals
The opponent is surely greater athlete (better physic), but JW is the better thinker. JW responds on fear
and bad situation is excellent because he has enough training for it.
Afterworld
JW doesn't know how his passion of buddhism and Mahatma Gandhi fit the martial art. After winning a
competition, he wants to get back to practice and shake off the idea that he had climbed his mountain.
There are great adventures ahead.
***
No matter how much preparation we'll do, in the real tests of our lives, there'll be always unfamiliar
terrain (as if the world is stacked against us). This is when we have to perform better than we ever
conceived of performing.
Mastery involves discovering the most resonant information and integrating it so deeply and fully it
disappears and allows us to fly free.