The lost art of mastery

A few years ago, when I learned how to code, I read the book "Mastery" by Robert Greene. To call it "life-changing" feels too bold, but "life-affirming" feels just right. In the years since, I've either used it or brought it up in one-on-one meetings with friends, peers, and more. It's proven t helpful to people who hit a plateau in their learning and served as inspiration for those disenchanted about their chosen path, starting and stopping projects that left them in a creative rut. This post is a companion to the book and has some meta-lessons learned along the way. So it's not a summary of every point or idea; many other services and sites offer that. I'll update it now and then as I discover more facets of the book and journey. ## Mastery takes deep work to the next level The book is a series of stories and advice on how to achieve mastery in your chosen domain. It's about reaching that moment you have a firm grasp of your chosen domain's landscape to the point where you can **innovate and develop original thinking** in it, thus "fusing rationality with intuition." (emphasis mine, quotes from the book) I hesitated to write this post as, during my research into the author, I discovered Robert Greene is polarizing for some. He's written several books about money, power, seduction, and mastery. But *Mastery* seems the best, with immediate practical applications in life and work, and it's worth sharing more broadly. I jokingly refer to the book and activity as "(The lost art of) Mastery." For some people and professions, mastery is or was a given. You picked a topic and went deep into it, improving as you explored different angles and approaches. As I write this, the tide has shifted dramatically technologically, socially, and economically. One of the most significant conversations of our era is about attention or lack thereof. Many friends complain about working with people constantly frazzled, their attention shredded to bits by whatever grabs them online that day, and with little ability to reflect on what they're doing or where they're going. Others I know need help seeing projects through to completion, working in fits and starts. Where there used to be depth, we now have shallow breadth. One of the scariest things about this superficial breadth is losing the idea of specialization, as one [book reviewer](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/9778945-the-shallows) put it: > A society that becomes accustomed to finding any and all information online may never learn anything deeply \[...] We bounce from hyperlink to hyperlink, chasing new pieces of information which we scan quickly and, because we read over it so quickly, it's never stored in our long-term memory. The next time we need that information, we'll have to log back on and find it again instead of relying on our ability to recall it. It's not surprising then that one of the most representative books of our time is [Deep Work](https://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/), an attempt to revive the ability to work over extended periods to produce good quality output consistently. Cal Newport's thesis is simple: you only get to do great work or achieve breakthroughs with long periods of deep thinking. Mastery is like an antidote to shallow breadth: thinking and working in fragments, using scraps of knowledge loosely held together, and stopping and starting new things all the time. It's also one of the great sources of satisfaction at work, along with autonomy and purpose. ## The modern-day apprentice The book proposes an apprenticeship-based path to mastery. The core idea is to find excellent mentors, spend years gathering skills in multiple areas, develop observation skills to evaluate and improve your performance, and cultivate your social intelligence abilities. Eventually, you leave your mentor, putting forth new ideas. You start breadth first, and go deep much later. It's not shy about the fact that we need other people instead of being entirely self-taught. For example, if you only try to learn by yourself, you may need to figure out what to learn, and you won't have people to bounce ideas off. Or, if you pick the wrong mentors, you may be led astray and worse off in the end. I love the emphasis on mentors for two reasons: One, we could all benefit from social interaction. Our phones and the internet have given us almost all the information we could want at our fingertips, but often at the cost of our ability to interact with people in person. We all stand to learn about ourselves and the world from having long-term, fruitful professional partnerships where we feel safe to create and disagree with someone we respect. Two, our work never exists in a vacuum. *Stuff* out in the world will always influence our experiences, emotions, and work. Therefore, we should be bold in imitating someone until we understand the mechanics of an idea or process and find our voice and style. The book is split into six parts, which I'll dive into: * Discover your unique calling * Follow the ideal apprenticeship * How to work with mentors * Cultivate social intelligence * The post-apprenticeship phase * Mastery: fusing rationality and intuition * More tips for work in the 21st century It sounds simple, but executing is much harder. If you pick up the book and only read a few chapters, read *"Follow the ideal apprenticeship"* and *"How to work with mentors."* When I bring this book up with people, these two chapters are some of the most useful. ### 1. Discover your unique calling > "You won't get through many hours of dedicated focus and practice without joy." The first chapter defines what a calling might feel like and strategies to find yours. Obviously, there's no point pursuing mastery of something you hate. When I bring this up with people, I emphasize the [Mary Oliver-like](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/519479-if-you-suddenly-and-unexpectedly-feel-joy-don-t-hesitate-give) **joy** aspect of finding your calling. It's an underrated word and emotion many people could spend more time exploring. The book suggests you explore this at length, paying particular attention to visceral, non-verbal reactions you have to thoughts surrounding the things you like or enjoy doing today. ### 2. Follow an apprenticeship The second chapter deals with how to acquire knowledge in the most efficient manner possible: an apprenticeship. An apprenticeship doesn't mean being unemployed or unpaid. It means getting your foot in the door any way you can so you get paid to learn. This chapter hides a radical concept: **humbleness**. Some people expect to enter the world of work fully formed, landing the job of their dreams, making at least six figures from the start, and instantly recognized by their peers. While some youthful naivety is a good source of energy and motivation, these opportunities happen less often than we think. It's a common bias to believe that it won't happen to us, given we are so invested in ourselves. But the book advocates being honest about what we'd prefer: learning straight away or the missed opportunities that come with waiting. Spoiler: the former is preferable. The book suggests suprressing such egotistical drives in the early stages of learning for two reasons: * one, people tend to respond poorly to cocky newcomers, and you don't want this to limit your progression early on; * two, you should focus on being a sponge, learning from anyone and anything that comes your way, observing how things are done and the difference between, e.g., someone's title and their influence in the team or company. Only later do you get to pick and choose what you will or won't do, and you'll do it in a much more informed way. When I mention this to people, I often refer to it as doing some low-level tasks for a *little* while. Depending on the profession, this could be things like: * work on data entry or data cleanup, create dashboards for important metrics; * help clean up documentation; * evaluate how the company spends resources; * improve presentation designs for senior leaders or prepare meeting briefings; * do research and interviews with people from other teams and departments, especially if they seem undervalued by peers or the company. None of these involve servitude in the way, e.g., meeting notes tend to polarize people. What they have in common is you make others look good, not *just* yourself, and they are things you need to do with help from other people (again: we never work in a vacuum). You are not only adding value, but you can also gain valuable insights and relationships from these acts, which can become your superpower later on. ### 3. How to work with mentors This chapter explains what mentors are and what they're not. A critical insight is to **pick a mentor based on your needs.** Mentors are shortcuts to knowledge, so look far and wide for one that fits your needs at a moment in time, rather than look for substitute parents, authority figures, or ask anyone who happens to be available. Once you have one, it's good to know that the relationship needs to be fruitful for both sides. You will get a lot, but you also need to give, at least until you've established yourself. If the mentor doesn't volunteer [radical candor](https://www.radicalcandor.com/the-book/) or dish out tough love, it's on the apprentice to push the mentor for it. You must learn to seek criticism, not just validation, for your work. Eventually, you must leave a mentor. If you want an excellent modern example of this, think of restaurants: chefs pick up techniques and habits from their mentors until they are ready to run a restaurant operation on their own and develop entirely new gastronomical concepts. ### 4. Cultivate social intelligence This chapter focuses on understanding people and how to carry yourself in various environments, especially highly political ones. It touches on some of Greene's other books about power and, at times, leans heavily into areas like understanding and avoiding manipulators or downright abusers, of which there are many the more you advance in a field. But, if anything, this chapter might help dispel naive thinking about other people, e.g., beliefs like *"bad things can't happen to good people,"* when in fact, they can, and they do. I don't reference this chapter as much, but its most valuable insight is: **let your work do the talking.** Don't get caught in drama or gossip in your workplace; be socially aware enough to promote your ideas (and yourself) and get the proper credit. ### 5: The post-apprenticeship creative/active phase This fun chapter occurs much later, depending on how long you apprentice. It's about how you can assert your skills, expand your knowledge, and retain a childlike spirit about your work as you do so. While it won't suggest project ideas or blog post names, it has plenty of potential avenues to explore when you've gained enough skill to test theories and hypotheses. This is the wonderful domain of creators and authors like [Austin Kleon](https://austinkleon.com/books/), whose books I highly recommend. The theme of this chapter is to look at the world with new eyes, spot anomalies, explore contradictions, and chase obsessive ideas to some conclusion. Where there is tension, there is opportunity. ### 6: Mastery: fuse rationality and intuition This chapter ties together everything and acknowledges that reaching this point can take up to twenty years. This stage of expert intuition borders on the supernatural, meaning it's a stage where you can see the interrelatedness of life as the ultimate reality. > You realize the boundaries between you and the world are much more fluid than you might imagine. The best advice that you can still apply to earlier stages is to **treat what you produce as something separate from you, that has a life and presence of its own.** At this stage, think of the sculptor or craftsman who says their job is to "listen" to what the material has to say and coax the work out of it as if the process is a collaboration between two parties. The thing that most people might need to catch up on when they are at this stage is an **attention to detail**. If you work with large brush strokes, the work will inevitably show a need for more awareness of facts. As a result, it won't connect deeply with the public and will feel flimsy or inauthentic. But, in my experience, you will always benefit by paying attention to details in a world where most people are shallow. ## Learning never stops A sort of "one more thing" before the end: > The problem with all students is that they inevitably stop somewhere. They hear an idea and they hold on to it until it becomes dead; they want to flatter themselves that they know the truth. But true Zen never stops, never congeals into such truths. That is why everyone must constantly be pushed to the abyss, starting over and feeling their utter worthlessness as a student. Without suffering and doubts, the mind will come to rest on clichés and stay there, until the spirit dies as well. Not even enlightenment is enough. You must continually start over and challenge yourself. I'd like to hear from you if you've read it, used it, and whether it helped! So please email me your thoughts or reach out on social media!