The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin is a look at his life and his road to excellence. He was the subject of the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, became a master of Tai Chi and has applied his learning techniques to brazilian jiu-jitsu.
One thing that struck me about Josh was the fact that when he was younger, there was an intense study and focus on end game positions. In chess, there are three phases of the game, the opening, the middle, and the end game. I played a bit of chess when I was younger, and I remember trying to memorize different openings to catch my opponent off guard. Josh had a very different approach to the game: instead of memorizing openings (and there are many, many different kinds of openings so memorizing openings is a bit of a rabbit hole), his teacher and him focused on end games. What happens with a king and a pawn versus a king? What happens with a king and a queen versus a king and a rook? As there are many fewer pieces in the end game than in the opening, this meant that there was less to memorize, but these types of scenarios helped to solidify a number of principles for Josh that could be applied to wider situations.
Here is what I learned from Josh on how to learn:
