Mastery
Page 46
Along the way, several people contributed with their advice and ideas. First on the list would have to be 50 Cent. Our discussions back in 2007 planted the seed for this book. 50’s literary agent, Marc Gerald, played his usual midwife role in the early stages. In this vein, I would also like to thank Casper Alexander, Keith Ferrazzi, and Neil Strauss; Professor William Ripple; Francisco Gimenez; my great friends Eliot Schain, Michiel Schwarz, and Joost Elffers; and Katerina Kantola, whose memory will live on forever. I would also like to thank my sister Leslie for all of her inspiring ideas about animals and our Pleistocene ancestors.
I am, of course, eternally grateful to the contemporary Masters who agreed to be interviewed for this book. I had made it a condition that all interviews be conducted in person, with no real time limit, and that the interview subjects had to be as candid as possible about their creative process, their early struggles, and even failures along the way. All of the people I interviewed were extremely generous with their time and gracious in dealing with my often-irritating questions. They displayed the kind of open spirit that I believe plays an essential role in mastery and success in life.
In helping me to set up these interviews I must thank graduate student Elizabeth Seckel, who works with Professor V.S. Ramachandran at UCSD; Jessica Livingston, wife of Paul Graham and founding partner of Y Combinator; Andrew Franklin, my extraordinary publisher at Profile Books in the United Kingdom, who helped with the Daniel Everett interview; David Gordon, former director of the Calatrava-enhanced Milwaukee Art Museum, who helped set up the Santiago Calatrava interview; Mrs. Tina Calatrava; Cheryl Miller, executive assistant to Temple Grandin; Stephanie Smith, partner at Lehmann Maupin, who helped with the Teresita Fernández interview; and agents Nick Khan and Evan Dick at CAA, who both represent Freddie Roach.
I must also thank my mother, Laurette, for all of her patience and love, and for being my biggest fan. And, of course, I cannot fail to mention Brutus, the greatest cat who has ever lived and Master hunter.
Finally, I would like to thank all those in the past—masters, mentors, and teachers—who over the years slowly opened my eyes to so many ideas, and taught me how to think. Their presence and spirit are suffused throughout this book.
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INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.
absolute rest, 275
Accademia del Cimento, 88, 99–100
Active-Creative Phase, 15
Adams, John, 133
adaptability, 15, 51, 133, 159–64, 234–36
adaptation strategy, 38–40
adolescence, 134–35, 172, 178
adrenaline, 288
Agassi, Andre, 111
aging, 266–67
Air Force, U.S., 77, 285
alchemy, 4, 208
creative process compared to, 242–45
of knowledge, 95–101
learning process compared to, 104–5
Alexander the Great, and Aristotle, 106
alienation, 31, 32–33, 43, 110, 111, 147–49, 151, 152, 228, 280
alphabet, phonetic, 240–41
AltaVista, 193–94
Amazon, 72–74, 161–63, 298
Ammophila wasp, 262
amputations, 211, 212–13
analogies, 187
ancestors, early human, 189, 196, 214
dominance developed by, 5–10, 14
intuition vs. instinct in, 262–63
social interactions of, 134, 138
vulnerability of, 5, 134
angels, in Leonardo’s work, 22–23, 290
animal behavior, 156–57
animals:
extinct, 52
on Galápagos, 53
Grandin’s affinity for, 43–44, 156–57, 280–84
as more than sum of parts, 257
specialists vs. opportunists in, 213–14
anomalies, 32–33, 187, 193–94, 210, 212, 214
anxiety, complexity and, 264–66
apotemnophilia, 212–13
appearance, function vs., 84–87
apprenticeship, 11, 15, 290
of Caroline Islanders, 272–73
hacker model for, 89–90
as lifelong path, 16–17
Medieval system of, 59, 62, 89
in Renaissance, 88
for tech founders, 234–35
Apprenticeship Phase, 3, 176
acquiring social intelligence in, 125–65
creativity suppressed in, 177, 179
Apprenticeship Phase (cont.)
dependency in, 203
eight strategies for, 65–90
end of, 63
expanding horizons in, 68–71
first transformation in, 49–54
goal of, 55–56, 74
Ideal, 47–91
keys to mastery in, 54–64, 102–8, 133
learning how to learn in, 47–91
self-direction in, 54–56, 66, 71, 89
three modes of, 55–64
trust in, 75–78
working with mentors in, 93–123
approval, as impediment to Life’s Task, 37–38, 203, 204
architecture, 41, 42, 84–87, 109, 219–23
Aristotle, 106, 196
artifacts, Fuller’s use of, 190
artificial intelligence, 87
assembly line, 83, 195
Aunt Ann (Grandin’s aunt), 280–81, 284
authentic voice, 206–9
autism, 43–45, 156–58, 280, 283–84
automobiles, 81–83
aviation, 216–18
Bach, Johann Christian, 171
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 117, 171, 182
Baptism of Christ, The (Verrocchio), 290
barnacles, Darwin’s study of, 188, 192
basketball, 78–79
Beagle, HMS, 11, 50–54, 62
Bergman, Ingmar, 30, 31
Bible, 51, 96, 180, 187
Pirahã translation of, 72, 161, 298
bicycle technology, 215–16, 219
Blanton Museum of Art, 244
blocks, in creative process, 199–201
blogging, 234
blood flow theory, 149–50
Blue Angel, The, 160–61
body language, 224
books, 68–71, 96, 107, 122, 249
Bowers, Kenneth, 263
boxing, 38–40, 67, 119–21, 294–98
Bradley, Bill, 78–79
brain:
in achieving mastery, 10, 273
in age of technology, 63–64, 273
childhood development of, 134
evolution of, 6–9, 267
hand and, 35, 64, 198, 210–11, 219, 230
interconnections of, 146, 184, 211, 224, 231, 263
map of, 210
mnemonic networks in, 263–64
of monkeys, 7–8
as opportunistic, 213–14
and optical illusions, 210–11
in pain response, 212
plasticity of, 9–10, 14, 196, 211, 234, 235
in visual perception, 110–11, 191
Brazil, 71–72, 298–303
Brin, Sergey, 193–94
Brooks, Rodney, 34–35, 111
Buñuel, Luis, 266
Burgess, Anthony, 186
Burghölzli Psychiatric Hospital, 109
Calatrava, Santiago, 15, 84–87, 219–23, 312
career path, 12, 27–28, 32–36, 56–58
adaptability in, 38–40, 89–90
false and unsuitable, 26, 37–38, 41–43
of Masters, 270–71
Caroline Islanders, 270–73
cat, 199–200
cattle, Grandin’s work with, 44–45, 280–84