This is the latest from Robert Greene, who has brought us important works such as The 48 Laws Of Power, The Art Of Seduction, and The 50th Law. Written in a similar style, Mastery alternates between sharing stories of masters with analysis and lessons from their success. An alternate title of this book could have been “How People Became Great.” Like always, Greene’s writing is smooth and easy.
The idea of mastery and craft is increasingly punished in modern society where easy fixes and hacks are preferred. No one wants to work hard to achieve a goal or dare take the untreaded path. Technology, which gives us so much without having to expend much energy, has enabled this phenomenon, causing people to avoid the repetition needed for mastery. Easy results are pursued instead, destroying the craftsmen model of the past.
Greene believes in identifying and honing your natural tendencies to turn them into a fulfilling vocation, giving several examples of how this was done for other successful people. His story of Charles Darwin was especially inspiring. Here was a man who was seen as “average” and even odd for his peculiar obsession with collecting specimens, yet when he was put into an environment where that obsession was nurtured, he went on to develop one of the most important theories of mankind.
Here are some other things I learned from Mastery:
- Sometimes it takes a while to find your calling.
- Drill down your passions until you find one that speaks strongly to you and where you can be the best at it.
- Learn one skill at a time. Start with the one you already have some natural ability at.
- Invent exercises that work on your weaknesses.
- Never failing is a curse: you think you are “skilled” and then collapse when the inevitable failure does occur.
- Sometimes to solve a problem you have to think of what is missing, not what is present.
- A sign of a work’s power is to elicit extremes of reaction.
I’m finding that that I get less value in Greene’s sugary pontifications than in his stories and anecdotes of great people. He knows how to relay success in a way that inspires and motivates, and I won’t be surprised if his next stop is motivational speaker. He does repeat examples here, noticeably more than his other work, so I did feel like he was trying to extract too much from too little instead of offering a more diverse sample.
Overall this was a solid book. It cleared my mind and reminded me to battle harder against distractions to focus more deeply. It also gave me advice on what it takes to get to the next level. However, I think I’m approaching the point of diminishing return from Greene’s wisdom. Since the topic of his books are loosely related, you feel like you’re reading sequels instead of entirely new productions, and when it comes to style, pages of his writing at a time can be reduced to a couple sentences. His monologues in this book often lacked punch. I will definitely read any future work he puts out, but I do hope he attempts something different.
Read More: “Mastery” on Amazon
Soleth Sar, aka Pol Pot, tried to remove foreign influence in Cambodia and came up with the phrase “Independence Mastery”, which had bad results for the Cambodians. I like the phrase though, as it make one think of the ways to develop your abilities to be independent, such as developing self-employment or consulting skills. When you work at a corporate job you can get complacent and flabby in that regard, then you get laid off and try desperately to regain another corporate gig so you can go back to your comfortable ways. Problem is they can always lord it over you with threats of impending layoffs.
The term “kung fu” is made from two Chinese characters: the first, kung, means “hard training” or “endeavor,” and the second, fu, means “time spent.”
Consider how many hours each day over the course of a lifetime that a Shaolin monk practices his form. This is how most Chinese men traditionally dedicated themselves to their personal line of work. If you are a tailor, then you practice creating garments, and garment-making is your kung fu.
A physician once told me that doctors refer to their profession as a practice because they worked on their skills for their entire careers. Medicine is their kung fu.
You have learned a lesson today, Grasshopper. Train hard and long, and you become a master of yourself.
I apologize for the double post. There was a 5 minute delay between when I posted it the first time and when it finally displayed on the page, so I had assumed erroneously that the first post had been lost.
Thanks for this, Harry.
The term “kung fu” is made from two Chinese characters: the first, kung, means “hard training” or “endeavor,” and the second, fu, means “time spent.”
Consider how many hours each day over the course of a lifetime that a
Shaolin monk practices his form. This is how most Chinese men traditionally dedicated themselves to their personal line of work. If you are a tailor, then you practice creating garments, and garment-making is your kung fu.
A physician once told me that doctors refer to their profession as a practice because they worked on their skills for their entire careers. Medicine is their kung fu.
You have learned a lesson today, Grasshopper. Train hard and long, and you become a master of yourself.
Good review. Mastery is vital to masculinity (kudos to Jack Donovan), indicating our capacity to know ourselves, focus, commit, sacrifice for what we believe in.
I find Dick Richard’s “Is Your Genius at Work?” amazingly useful in terms of purposeful repetition. Have recommended it to many friends/colleagues with good results. For me it’s prompted a series of personal realizations that has influenced every area of my life. Speaking my personal mission statement is more meaningful than quoting from a movie.
Ex: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s family motto – “by endurance we conquer.” That is the essence of mastery itself.
Good review. Mastery is vital to masculinity (kudos to Jack Donovan), indicating our capacity to know ourselves, focus, commit, sacrifice for what we believe in.
I find Dick Richard’s “Is Your Genius at Work?” amazingly useful in terms of purposeful repetition. Have recommended it to many friends/colleagues with good results. For me it’s prompted a series of personal realizations that has influenced every area of my life. Speaking my personal mission statement is more meaningful than quoting from a movie.
Ex: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s family motto – “by endurance we conquer.” That is the essence of mastery itself.
Good review. Mastery is vital to masculinity (kudos to Jack Donovan), indicating our capacity to know ourselves, focus, commit, sacrifice for what we believe in.
I find Dick Richard’s “Is Your Genius at Work?” amazingly useful in terms of purposeful repetition. Have recommended it to many friends/colleagues with good results. For me it’s prompted a series of personal realizations that has influenced every area of my life. Speaking my personal mission statement is more meaningful than quoting from a movie.
Ex: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s family motto – “by endurance we conquer.” That is the essence of mastery itself.
I have found that Green books may seem very useful but I haven’t read any of them yet
would be enough Reading his last one?
They are independent works, but I’d read 48 Laws Of Power first.
They are independent works, but I’d read 48 Laws Of Power first.
Yes. It seems like he’s found his niche and is really hammering it. Would like to see him branch out, after all he is a keen observer and fairly talented writer.
I like those bullet points.
I need to read his books.
No one wants to work hard to become a “craftsmen”. Everyone is looking for a hack or short cut. Craftsmen are becoming more rare but more valuable.
I am becoming a “craftsmen” of day game.
good post Roosh. I liked Mastery a lot. I disagree about the greatness of a work eliciting extremes of reactions, simply because the opinion of other people does not matter, at all. YOU are the master, and if after putting thousands of hours of work in practice and you mastered your art, you cannot grant anyone the right to judge your work. Although yes, you can never be a slave of your own ideas. But as a master of his trade, the individual already observed his work from many perspectives. No one can do that better. I say this because someone might do something shocking, and elicit extremes reaction. But that’s not a master, that might be an attention whore or a psycho. I do agree about Greene giving too abstract advice sometimes, so I understand what you meant about the standard motivational speaker too. And yes, if you cut all the fluff, it can be a much shorter book. When Mastery came out I emailed Greene to ask if he’ll ever publish a concise edition as he did for his other books