The Relationship Between Boxing and Dancing

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Dancing was a way into a conversation with my daughter, who had gone off to college and come out as queer. At least for the person leading, there is that kind of assertiveness that you have to express every time. We are engaged in a common practice that brings us together in a state of absorption that produces a unique kind of happiness. And I think it's only Americans would miss its profundity if we didn't do it.

A few years ago, Adam Gopnik, a longtime writer for The New Yorker and three-time winner of the National Magazine Award, started thinking about all the things he wasn't good at. He couldn't dance the foxtrot or bake a brioche. Well into his 50s, he still had no idea how to drive a car. To make matters worse, when he looked around, he saw people who could do these things — often with great skill. How, he wondered, did they do it? How do any of us get good at the things we're good at? And how do some of us become next-level masters? To answer those questions, Adam set out to master the skills he lacked, and he has written up the results in a profound little book, "The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery."