Josh Waitzken mastered chess at an early age and provided the storyline represented in the film, Searching for Bobby Fischer. The stress of stardom disaffected him from the chess world and he pursued martial arts. Waitzken not only earned international chess championships as a child, he also fought to win multiple Tai Chi championships later in life. He identified many consistencies in how he learned world-class chess and how he excelled in martial arts.
He catalogued many of the principles he discovered about his own learning in The Art of Learning. This introspective book shares some approaches to learning which can apply to mastering any discipline. A few of his ideas include:
- The concept of “numbers to leave numbers” | He describes in depth how mastery consists of memorization and repetition of rules or principles first, then progression consists of making all those rules intuitive. The culmination of this concept manifests itself in reaching the utmost bounds of all these rules and precedents to invite “revelation” about new ways of doing things.
- “Losing to Win” | He recounted how getting beat up (in chess and martial arts both) took him down paths to teach him things he would have not learned otherwise. This habit makes your knowledge more foolproof. Constant success, if not checked, leads to vulnerability. Losing presents incredible opportunities for learning.
- Using Adversity | Weaknesses – both mental and physical – may be turned to strengths by overcompensating. In one instance Josh Waitzken broke his hand, and later injured a shoulder, but concentrating his remain good limbs created a new awareness for him. His injuries created a “tremendous source of inspiration.”
“If I want to be the best, I have to take risks others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to my advantage. […] You have to make obstacles spur you to creative new angles in the learning process” – Josh Waitzken
