Micromastery by Robert Twigger

Reading records by Devi Eko Irianto

Photo by matthew Feeney on Unsplash

Reading records are interesting phrases in the book and documented by a person who read the book. This is not a book review or resume.

1. Start with egg, not the chicken
   Life can be overwhelming. We want to do as much as we can, see the world, learn new things — and it can all get a bit too much.
2. A micro-mastery is a self-contained unit of doing, complete in itself but connected to a greater field. You can perfect that single thing or move on to bigger things — or you can do both.
   A micro-mastery has a structure that connects in a crucial way to important elements in a greater field it is a part of.
3. Biggest reasons for not achieving anything are giving up, failing to gain momentum and becoming distracted. You may imagine you are tough and self-contained, but we all need a payoff as soon as we start learning. Especially if it’s been a while since we tried anything new. If you don’t have micro-success along the way you’ll lose heart and give up, especially if you are learning something on your own.
4. Every micro-mastery has a precise structure:

• The entry trick
• The rub-pat barrier
• Background support
• The payoff
• Repeatability
• Experimental possibilities

5. Static learning is about following a sequence of steps. Dynamic learning is about the relationship between the steps and how much emphasis to give each one.
Example: books convey static learning, which is why highly practical and physical activities — such as martial arts — can’t be learned from them. However, once you know something about material arts you can use books to enhance your skills.

6. The only learning curve worth being on is a steep one — Bob Dylan

7. Locate hidden micro-mastery

• Rule 1: Locate the fun
• Rule 2: Find the tail and the the dog
• Rule 3: Go three-dimensional, go multi sensory
• Rule 4: Talk to the experts

8. Humans are learning animals — we have to be. Each generation must learn a great deal in order to participate fully in life. Then we must learn what is new and urgent in order to survive the inevitable changes that occur throughout our life. Finally, we must keep learning as we age, in order to keep the basic functionality of our brain in working order.

9. Sometimes, when we contemplate serious life projects — mountains to scale, careers to prosper at — we lose heart and retreat into consuming rather than doing and producing. Consumption becomes the default source of ‘happiness’, even if we don’t want it to be. Micro-mastery is one way out. By identifying small, enjoyable and self-contained instances of improvement we move back towards a more real form of happiness.

10. Happiness is more likely if you make a decision before doing an activity: the decision simply to act happy. By acting out the happiness you trust you will find in an area of micro-mastery, you liberate yourself from the yoke of thinking it is a nebulous ‘thing’ out there, waiting for you to grab hold of it. By deciding to be happy, you shift from a consumer mindset to a producer mindset. You focus on the task and not yourself. And when we are in a producer mindset — creating, doing, being active — we tend to be less self-absorbed and become, mysteriously, happier.

11. Producing is more satisfying than consuming. Consuming is what is eating up the planet’s resources and polluting the sea. We come to see that making things is simply better.

12. Happiness comes from inside — it’s a decision. Enjoyment comes from outside — it has to be sniffed out. Enjoyment gets you out of the bed in the morning, but happiness helps you to sleep at night. In general, the enjoyment derived from production is far more durable that the enjoyment we get from consuming.

13. Confidence is really a performance decision to put more energy into what you do. More directed effort is like very deliberately opening a tap, allowing energy to pour out instead of hoping it will find its way out magically. If we lack confidence we might assume the meager energy at our disposal is all we have. But all we need to do is make that performance decision, turn the tap and give it more well. It’s a case of consciously opening the tap rather than waiting for inspiration.

14. Lack of confidence often means we just don’t try, and the single biggest cause of failure is not trying. When people self-describe as ‘failing’ or being a ‘failure’ it usually transpires that they merely entertained a notion but did nothing further about it. They didn’t take the extra step. They believed that ‘it wasn’t worth it’ or ‘too many others are already doing it’ or ‘I’m not good enough’. But you are.

15. Flow is a concept we touched upon at the start of the book, popularized by the Czech psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The central idea is that when we become fully immersed in activity we enter a state of mind where we’re no longer conscious of time. Concentration is enhanced and we feel fully alive, though reflecting on such things can interrupt the flow state. It is only in retrospect that we recall such feelings. When you are in a flow state your critical stop/go judging way of thinking is switched off. You learn faster as a result.

16. By adopting the polymathic perspective, one of ideational fluency, gained from having multiple micro-mastery, you automatically switch from ‘closed’ to ‘open’. By this I mean a general view on life, a feeling of being open to life’s wonders, marvels and opportunities. You become open to learning. Because you know the micro-mastery secret of acquiring expertise you don’t feel shut out by the expertise of others. You become confident and fearless, a good combination in any circumstances.

17. Mastery is about keeping going, mainly. It is about being comfortable on the plateau. It’s about the long haul, not the quick fix or the shortcut. Shortcuts are attractive but they are never easy. Usually they involve greater energy and commitment, which can result in burnout. Mastery is about seeing the deep relationships and important causative features. Mastery requires commitment — but of the right kind. You can’t be too keen or too obsessed, otherwise you won’t see the wood for the trees. On the other hand you have to do a lot of it.

18. Three areas which increase meaning in everyday life: caring for others; artistic, creative or productive endeavor; and choosing one’s own attitude to suffering and misfortune.

19. Lateral thinking is all about digging new holes rather than a deeper version of the hole you are already in. By thinking wide rather than deep you make new connections — the heart of any increase in creativity. Random linking is similar: just try to connect your current problem with something totally random. Simply by forcing your thoughts in this contrived way, new insights tend to emerge. Reverse thinking is another way to generate new material by simply reversing any proposition or idea that seems staid or conventional or obvious. Brainstorming involves a group effort where the emphasis is on reducing nay-saying and criticism until the session has ended. The process respects the fact that creativity is usually fatally damaged by criticism and self-censoring — based on our worries about what others think — far too soon.

20. Once you get used to micro-mastery you’ll find that you are no longer seeing the world through half-shut eyes. You are slowly giving yourself permission to be interested in everything. You don’t have to limit. And your interest won’t be superficial.

21. Start small, start humble. Can this essentially low-key approach be leveraged into a way to improve almost everything about your life? I think it can.

22. Everything starts with interest. If we aren’t interested we don’t notice and we don’t learn. Happy people have interests and are interesting, and showing severe lack of interest is a sign of depression.

23. The culture we live in tantalizes through images. and yet tacitly withdraws any genuine involvement. The ‘real world’ is presented as professional — there to be admired, but not touched. So the hidden path to success is relearning how to give yourself permission to be interested and engaged in anything.

24. The punk mentality insists, “Why not try it?” Instead of waiting around for the ideal moment, find a simplified version, on micro-mastery. Instead of learning to play guitar, learn one song. Play it a lot. Experiment with it.