Alchemical Creativity in the Unconscious

“It’s never going to be easier to just learn and to make little money, than when you’re young and in the beginning.”

Mastery is the best book that either of us have found at becoming a master of your craft, getting mentors, learning through experience, and reaching the top of your field. If you’re serious about becoming known for your work, there are few better books that you could read to help get you there, and we covered many of the key lessons in this episode. In this episode though, we covered:

• Finding your purpose and achieving skill mastery
• Reconnecting with your inner self
• Strategies for improving your life and progression
• Avoiding common mistakes that hinder growth
• Enduring pain to increase mental resilience
• Breaking through learning plateaus
• Remaining patient and trusting the process
• Improving your social intelligence to communicate better

And much more. Enjoy! If you want more on Mastery, be sure to check out Nat’s notes on the book and pick up a copy yourself.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to also listen to our launch episodes on Antifragile by Nassim Taleb to learn how to profit from chaos, and Letters from a Stoic by Seneca to learn ancient wisdom for a better life.

Mentioned in the show:

• How to Become an Expert in Any Skill
• Tinder
• RTS games
• Fountains of Bellagio
• Procter and Gamble
• No Shampoo, No Conditioner article
• How To Get Up To Speed In Any Industry… Quickly article
• Candy Crush
• Deliberate Practice article
• Mattan Griffel Crucial Conversations Slideshow
• MomTrusted
• Morning Pages
• Cryptocurrency
• Teachable
• Neil’s brewing company

Books mentioned:

• Mastery by Robert Greene (Nat’s Notes)
• Letters from a Stoic (Made You Think Episode) (Nat’s Notes)
• Antifragile (Made You Think Episode) (Nat’s Notes)
• Excellent Sheep (Nat’s Notes)
• Siddartha
• Deep Work (Nat’s Notes)
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind  (Nat’s Notes)
• What Every Body is Saying
• The 48 Laws of Power (Nat’s Notes)
• Crucial Conversations (Neil’s Notes)
• The Art of Learning (Nat’s Notes)

People mentioned:

• Robert Greene
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Charles Darwin
• Thomas Edison
• Martha Graham
• William Deresiewicz
• Chaz Giles
• Justin Mares
• Scott Adams
• Seneca
• Ernest Hemingway
• Michael Faraday
• Ignaz Semmelweis
• Peter Thiel
• Ankur Nagpal

2:03 - Start of the discussion. Nat discussing the layout of the book and how you can benefit from it.

7:58 - Anyone can become a master. Nat and Neil on the first steps to achieving mastery and on the first phase of the book, the apprenticeship phase.

12:10 - Focusing on your personal tendencies that hint at your purpose and thoughts on becoming more connected to yourself.

16:55 - Nat and Neil on Greene’s three steps for trying to reconnect with your calling and finding work that you truly enjoy.

19:14 - The large number of potential jobs that are there, but aren’t always easy to find. A few examples on this from Nat and Neil.

22:04 - Looking at your career as more of a journey with twists and turns, rather than a straight line. Also, some more ideas for finding the things that you’re really interested in.

27:27 - Speaking on learning everything that you can and then detailing the first steps of the apprenticeship phase.

33:12 - Discussing the importance of deliberate practice, deep work, and avoiding distractions to achieve optimal efficiency with your work.

36:47 - Greene’s strategies to help you complete the apprenticeship phase and for getting the most out of it.

40:22 - Trusting the process, not setting artificial metrics for yourself, and taking the harder options for more growth.

42:35 - Properly implementing feedback from your failures, the importance of trying different things, and broadening your skills.

45:25 - The necessity for having a mentor and learning from them.

53:05 - Choosing the correct mentor, avoiding common mistakes with your mentor, and advice for properly learning from them.

59:20 - Developing social intelligence and improving your ability to navigate personal interactions.

1:06:01 - Strategies to acquire social intelligence and advice for better connecting to others.

1:10:20 - Advice and steps for thinking beyond those initial guidelines, sparking new creativity, and continuing your learning beyond the constraints of the skill.

1:19:58 - Strategies for avoiding emotional pitfalls, maintaining patience, and continually improving yourself.

1:26:18 - Giving yourself an environment to be creative and to actively explore contradictions in yourself and in the world at large.

1:28:35 - Fusing the intuitive with the rational and achieving mastery, seeing the world as it really is, and really trying to understand other’s perspectives.

1:35:17 - Wrap up and some final thoughts on the book.

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“After continual practice for years, you eventually make the leap to mastery.”