Initial Impressions: Mastery by George Leonard

 This is a small book - 176 pages, in large font. The front cover has a 70s aesthetic to it. Like other short works such as Man's Search for Meaning, this gives the impression that there is much under the surface and would reward re-readings. 

The book has three sections. The first section outlines the philosophy of the concept of the path of mastery. The second section disassembles the system of mastery into its component parts. The third section is a bunch of condensed wisdom - a sort of field manual about a few important ways someone trying to walk the path of mastery could get tripped up, and how to avoid those traps. 

In the first section, the author tries a bit of the via negativa by first describing all the paths that are NOT the path of mastery - the Dabbler, the Obsessive and the Hacker. Next he identifies the main obstacle to mastery - the desire for the short-cut, or rather the desire for repeated thrills in the form of climaxes. In other words, the inability to, as Fr. Stephen Freeman would say, "sit with one's shame." Or as other people with a military background would say, "Embrace the suck!" "Embrace the suck!"

At the end of the first section, he comes to the essence of Mastery: Loving the Plateau - in other words, embracing the suck. However, from Seth Godin and others we know that this area is more of a trough very often than even a plateau. It's a messy road that seems to lead nowhere. Even a plateau would be more consoling. My take on this is that often it is the forces of social politics that make this stage messy. Absent these, and looking at it from the simplified perspective of skill acquisition, it would look like a plateau indeed. 

The second section can be described as Deliberate Practice + Mindfulness + Go full David Goggins! 

In the third section, when he talks about where the energy from mastery comes from, it brought to mind the Matthew Principle, as well as "Success means never feeling tired" [PDF of RD article] idea of Mortimer Adler. The injunction about "Mastering the Commonplace" in section three reminded me of the "Everything is aiming" philosophy of Awa Kenzo.("Zen in the art of Archery", "Zen Bow, Zen Arrow") 

Within the book and in the Epilogue, Leonard points out that he who wants to be a master must start out by being a fool. Echoes of Valentin Tomberg's "Meditations on the Tarot." (Leonard even mentions the tarot in the Epilogue.) 

I will read this a few more times and write a proper review.