I have been a longtime fan of Adam Gopnik’s writing and
reporting for as long as I have been a regular
reader of the New Yorker magazine. His self-deprecating sense of humor and philosophical
slant to his writing makes the stories not only enjoyable but also thought
provoking. He has a style that is well thought out, erudite, and unforced.
I was drawn to his book as I have been interested in mastery
for a long time, particularly the stories of people who have worked diligently
towards achieving mastery; I am curious about their struggles with the process
of achieving mastery, the lessons that they have learned about themselves, the
nature of the process, and the demands working towards mastery places on their cognition,
patience, and resilience.
The word mastery has been used and abused in the recent
years because it has become the part of the lexicon for the quickie How-To business
book industry, it has been metamorphosed into a trite caricature by pretenders. Once the
business book writing cabal find a hot popular topic such as mastery, the
phrase is repeated ad infinitum by all the other members of the cabal.
Every business book author ceaselessly repeats mastery as a mantra, but it
is obvious that they are only interested in the shallow and superficial aspects
of what it takes to achieve mastery. They tend to dig into the results of
mastery rather than the hard intellectual and physical work necessary to
achieve mastery. Since I am familiar with Gopnik’s previous work, I knew that I could trust Gopnik to get beyond
the superficial and trite to get deep into mastery.
The book occupies a much larger landscape than I expected.
In fact, it is broader, was more introspective, and much more internal than
what I had expected. I would say that the book both exceeded and expanded my
expectations. The coverage was more
expansive while also was not fearful about being abstract.
The book is, as expected, full of philosophical digressions, which is
why I love reading Gopnik. The subtitle of the book is the Mystery of Mastery. What
is the mystery? Why is the idea of achieving mastery so mysterious?
The organization of the book interspersed the seven
mysteries of mastery amongst the chapters devoted to the topics that Gopnik
investigated and worked at to attain mastery. Obviously, he was not able to
achieve mastery in all of the topics he investigated, but his willingness to
jump into the process of learning and working towards mastery gave us a strong
perspective on those things that he had to fight through to even get close to
the edge of mastery.
The seven mysteries are:
· Performance
· Identity and Intention
· Interiority
· Meaning
· Late Style
· The Act Itself
· And the Resolve.
Those chapters are illustrated through topics of
investigation that Gopnik attempted:
· Drawing
· Magic
· Driving
· Baking
· Boxing and Dancing
There is also an additional chapter that is devoted to a
topic that is not about a skill or an action but a personal topic, which at
first made me uneasy at first, but that was Gopnik’s intention. The personal
topic is relieving. It took an act of courage for Gopnik to discuss this
particular topic, and I appreciate his bravery and honesty. This chapter is a
dive into gaining mastery over something that is personal and internal, it is a
necessity for him rather than a choice that he made as a luxury.
Three topics drew my interest the most, although I learned something
from each topic. Magic, Boxing, and Dancing were topics that I felt most comfortable
with, for whatever reason. Magic stands out in this book because this seemed to
be the center of why Gopnik dove in to investigate the topic of mastery. He
delved into the history of magic and the mystique that had grown up through the
years around performing magic. He also told stories about magicians, historical
and present-day performers, digging into why they work so hard at their
performances and what drew them into its grips. He investigates the motivations
behind some of the biggest names in present day magic and tries to answer the
question about their obsessions . The digressions into the history of magic was
not really a digression per se, but a history lesson that gives context to the present-day
magic scene and magicians.
Gopnik’s story telling ability pulled me into the details of
the topics, no matter how mundane I felt the topics were, he has a way of
looking at the different facets of the most normal and ordinary tasks and
giving insight. The interspersing of the Mysteries of Mastery chapters
perfectly complemented the stories and gave meaning to the stories and framed
the mysteries through the context of each topic.
I have made a list of the mysteries in my Commonplace book
to contemplate and to force myself to think in those terms. Perhaps I am making
more out of Gopnik’s views of mastery, yet
I am willing to wager that I am not overthinking his mysteries. Regardless, I
will be stimulated and entertained.
