The art of learning

Washington Square Park
-Practice is important because Josh practice for countless hours in the park.
-learn from your loses.

Coach
-explain thought process.
-think for yourself about how your decision could be better.

National Championship
- confidence is critical but overconfidence is brittle.
- take a short break from intense competition can be beneficial.

- Best result come from learning from your losses deeply , both technical and psychological.


-growth is like when hermit crab change shells. There are growth spurts and plateaus in between.


-Successful people shoot for the star, put their heart on the line in every battle, and ultimately discover that the pursuit of excellence mean much more than the immediate trophies and glory. in the long run, painful loss prove more valuable than wins. Those who are armed with a healthy attitude and are able to draw wisdom from every experience, good or bad are the one who will make it down the road. They are also happier along the way.


-losing can be painful , but there will be lesson learn.


- use your emotional states to your advantage instead of resisting them.

Women got hit by the car
The women is angry at the biker who hit her, and instead was hit by a taxi .

-The downward spiral was due to not accepting reality in real time, therefore you make decision on the basis of previous advantage instead of current disadvantaged position.

Accept reality as it is on real time
- You emotion, especially anger means you are not accepting a reality for the worse.


Playing chess in Slovenia
- deep love for chess motivated him rather than ambition.

-embracing change instead of fighting it.



Two ways to tame a horse
1. break its spirit and show him whose boss
2. feed him, gently handle him and make him like you, then u domesticated him


- you have to stretch your muscles to grow, but stretch too thin and you snap
- keep your unique natural talent .

Josh always talks about the relationship of chess , tai chi to him was a personal one. I wonder what that means.



Tai Chi Quan
Learn the principles of the game.

- while I learn without ego , other student repeat their mistakes over and over.
- when master make suggestion, they would explain their thinking in attempt to justify themselves.

- in early years of Tai Chi , mission is to be wide open to every bit of information. Tried my best to learn from each error.

- get shamed by Evan , over time his body learn how to adapt.


- if Josh wants to look good to satisfy his ego , he wouldn't have improved by training with Evan.

- there will be time when a new skill is required, but is hard to maintain the beginner mind and lose when performance matters . And ego take its place.

- We must take responsibility for ourself and not expect the world to understand what it takes to become the best that we can be.



- explore simple principles first , then move on to more complex scenarios.

- have to do something slowly first ,before we can do it with speed correctly.

-subtle internalization is much more important than quantity learned.

- depth is much more important than breadth.

-Turning loss into a learning opportunity.


Ahmed
Learn from your opponent.