Page 171 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

When I went home and watched the video , I studi ed each of thes e moment s
frame by frame to see what happened . Sometimes I woul d see myself trigge ring

into a throw just as Dan’s blink began. Other times, my body woul d di rect a
throw off to a creative new angle that caught Dan unaw ares. Maybe my
footwork would fall into rhythm with hi s in a manner that open ed up a tiny
gap of momentum to ride, or I might catch him at the beg inni ng of an

exhalation. There were many moment s like thi s, each of whi ch I studi ed unt il I
understood. The next day I woul d come into training and tell Dan wha t I
discovered. We would then convert what had been creative inspi ration int o
something we understood techni cally. If my body synch ed up with hi s

breathing, we broke down how to do thi s at will. If I caught a bl ink, we
studied the nuances of blinking. Next time we spar red, Dan woul d be aware of
the new weapon I was working with, and so he woul d create a count er in orde r
to stay in the game. Then I would work agai nst his count er. Thi s way we raised

the baseline of our everyday level, and incr ementally expan ded the ho rizon of
what our creative bursts could attain.
Let’s think about this method in the languag e of chess: If a che ss expe rt
were to have his most inspired day he woul d come up with ideas tha t woul d

blow his mind and the minds of other s at his level. But for the master, the se
inspired creations would be humdr um . They are the everyday be caus e hi s
knowledge of chess allows him to play thi s way all the time. Whi le the weake r
player might say, “I just had a feeling,” the stronger player would shrug and

explain the principles behind the ins pi red move. Thi s is why Grandm asters can
play speed chess games that weaker masters woul dn’t under stand in hundr eds
of hours of study: they have internal ized such esoteric pat terns and pr inc ipl es
that breathtakingly precise decisions are made intui tively. The techni cal

afterthoughts of a truly great one can appear to be divine inspi ration to the
lesser artist.
When I think about creativity, it is always in relation to a founda tion. We
have our knowledge. It becomes deepl y internal ized unt il we can access it

without thinking about it. Then we have a leap that us es what we kno w to go
one or two steps further. We make a di scovery. Most peopl e stop here and ho pe
that they will become inspired and reach that state of “di vine ins ight ” aga in. In
my mind, this is a missed opportuni ty. Imagine that you are bui ldi ng a

pyramid of knowledge. Every level is cons truct ed of techni cal inf ormation and
principles that explain that information and conden se it int o chunks (as I