The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin – Introducton

“The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition, in the boardroom, at the exam, the operating table, the big stage. If we have any hope of attaining excellence, let alone of showing what we’ve got under pressure, we have to be prepared by a lifestyle of reinforcement. Presence must be like breathing.”

Josh Waitzkin became a celebrity chess prodigy after the release of the film “Searching for Bobby Fisher“.

Waitzkin started his chess carrer as a child competing with the colorful mix of personalities in the park close to his hous. He found the game exciting and he discovered an innate talent for the sport. Waitzkin had the luck to come in contact with a great teacher who could help him advance his street-savvy chess style to something more refined, whilst keeping young Waitzkins inner flair alive.

According to Waitzkin, other chess instructors tend to suffocate the same passion that is crucial for wanting to learn.

Apart from a good teacher Waitzkin had both a loving mother and and father who helped guide him through his early life.

Waitzkin also started to develop mental strategies to cope with the immense stress during tournaments, further magnified by the the fame following “Searching for Bobby Fisher”. These strategies were explained in detail by Waitzkin in the book.
Now, a young man in his early 20s, he started to practise Tai-Chi. Again he learned quickly and again, this is explained in more detail telling of the continous consciouss effort made by Waitzkin.

Not only did Josh Waitzkin become a chess champion, he also became world champion in Tai-Chi. Furthermore he holds a black belt in Brazilian Jui-jutsu and now works as a proffesional advisor for top executives in the business world who want to reach true excellence.

The art of learning really delved into the psycology of development in a way that clearly had a solid foundation in results.

By combining Body, mind and conscioness into guide-book his interesting life story also is filled with knowledge gems, filling one with inspiration.

Before delving into the Art of Learning more I would like to provide the Learnbus with a link to an interview with Waitzkin made by Tim Ferriss (Author of the 4 hour work week, 4 hour chef and early investor in Uber, Shopify and a plentiful of other enteprises.).

Here is a link to a blogpost from last month between Ferriss and Peter Thiel if you are interested.

Tim Ferriss and Peter Thiel

Tim Ferriss:

Entrepreneur, Investor, Author, Lifehacker and everything else.
The four hour work week helped me out from entrepreneurial isolation and helped expand my knowledge to understand that I could become proactive and deliberately choose how to live my life, in the face of those who says it is not possible.

Tim Ferriss has since The Four Hour Work Week grown into an investor and inspiring mentor for many entrepreneurs world wide.

Ferriss writes blog posts on his website http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/ about a variety of themes and has also written several other books about nutrition/food and training.

He also has a Podcasts which I highly can recommend. He basically interviews people he admires or is interested in and put in some of his own thoughts in others.

I have found that in each one of the podcast interview a book – which I have read or heard about is being mentioned since a frequent question asked by Ferriss is something like: Which book has given most impact on your life?

The other day I saw on Ferriss´ Facebook page that he had an internview with Peter Thiel himself:

You can find that great 25-30 minute interview here: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/09/09/peter-thiel/?utm_content=buffer43938&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

I Recognized concepts of Peter Thiels thinking and made a quick google search on the book I thought they were derived from and… Voilá!! An article from Forbes:(http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2014/09/10/peter-thiel-dont-wait-to-start-something-new/) the physical copy is coming in the end of september 2014.

In the Forbes-article/Interview the question of which book has been more influential for Thiel, and he respons with The Sovereign Individual (Touchstone, 1997), by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg.

That book is the one I have been reading(last year, but it was stolen!) bought it to my father with my brother for christmas and have since summer rearead it

Mr. Thiel says as follows about it:

It is an unusual book that I read at a singular moment, just before starting PayPal. A lot of thinking about technology oscillates between two extremes: It’s either a big historical force acting over the long term or it’s a matter of short-term trends to bet on. The Sovereign Individual is different because it takes foresight seriously: If you think hard, you can understand and make plans for a future lasting 10, 20 years or more–and that’s how you have to think to be successful.

I find the sovereign individual to be a heavy book with an interesting perspective on a Mega-macro level in society based on the notion that the ability to excert Violence is the driving force of human history and therefor its future.

I might write a summary of this book later on.

Until then I will enjoy more talks of Tim Ferris and Peter Thiel and hopefully get my hands on his lates book Zero to One.

Summary of post:

• Tim Ferriss and Peter Thiel are two interesting people for inspiration and knowledge.
• Tim Ferriss has good books, podcasts and blog posts.
• The Sovereign Individual has affected one of the well known investors of today.