Page 42 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

battle, each player puts every ounce of his or her tactical, strategical, emotiona l,
physical, and spiritual being into the struggl e. The brain is pus he d thr ough

terrible trials; we stretch every fiber of our mental capaci ty; the who le bo dy
aches from exhaustion after hours of rapt concentration. In the cour se of a
dynamic chess fight, there will be shi fts in momentum , near misses, na rrow
escapes, innovative creations, and pr ecise refutations . When your po sition

teeters on the brink of disaster, it feels like your life is on the line. Whe n you
win, you survive another day. When you lose, it is as if someone ha s torn out
your heart and stepped on it. N o exagger ation. Lo sing i s br ut al.
This brings up an incipient danger in what may appear to be an inc rement al

approach. I have seen many people in diverse fi ds take some version of the
process-first philosophy and trans form it into an excuse for never put ting
themselves on the line or pretending not to care about resul ts. They claim to be
egoless, to care only about learning, but really thi s is an excuse to avoid

confronting themselves. This issue of process vs. goal is very delicate, and I
want to carefully define how I feel the q ues tion s ho ul d be n avigat ed.
It would be easy to read about the studi es on entity vs. incr emental the ories
of intelligence and come to the concl usion that a chi ld sho ul d ne ver win or

lose. I don’t believe this is the case. If that chi ld discovers any ambi tion to
pursue excellence in a given field later in life, he or she may lack the toughne ss
to handle inevitable obstacles. Whi le a fi ation on resul ts is certainl y
unhealthy, short-term goals can be us eful developm ental tools if the y are

balanced within a nurturing long-term phi losophy. Too much she ltering from
results can be stunting. The road to succes s is no t easy or else everyone woul d
be the greatest at what they do—we need to be psychologi cally pr epa red to face
the unavoidable challenges along our way, and when it comes do wn to it, the

only way to learn how to swim is by get ting i n t he w ater.
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the mother of a talent ed young che ss
player I know named Danny. This seven-year-old boy just loves chess. He can’t
get enough. He studies chess for a half hour every day, pl ays on the Int erne t,

and takes a lesson from an expert once a week. He has recent ly started
competing in scholastic chess tournam ents, and the mother fi he rself swept
away by the exciting atmosphere. She finds her own sense of well-be ing
fluctuating with Danny’s wins and losses. Thi s woman is a subs tant ial,

sensitive, intelligent person and she do esn’t want to put an extra bur de n on he r
son’s shoulders. She is aware of the ent ity/incr emental dynam ic and so whe n