Reddit mentions of The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

Ah yeah, you’re in a tough part of the melee journey. Serious enough to be invested in results, not good enough to get a ton of positive feedback. Good enough to identify weaknesses, but you don’t quite yet have a framework to solve these problems. Good enough to have others put expectations on you / talk about your play style but not quite good enough to refute haters or have your point of view heard. You’ve been playing long enough that you can see how far you’ve come but you also start to realize just how far you really are from the top.

It’s easy to get discouraged from here, especially with what seems like a decently large skillgap between you and the next guy up and what seems to be a fairly toxic community wherever you are. At your skill level it seems like you can grind out tech skill and still see a million errors in your play. You can improve a bunch and not really see progress in how far you place in bracket. Even if you do really want to put in the effort to improve it doesn’t seem clear where exactly you should focus these efforts.

My advice is to start to really appreciate the journey every step of the way. Yes, this is a tough part of it, but learning to overcome this spot you’re at both skill wise and what you have to admit has become a bit of a mental barrier will provide tremendous benefit to you. Learn to focus your effort to be more productive, to see benefit in your training in ways other than counting how many times you SD in a match. Hard work pays off. Not always in the most obvious ways, but trust me when I say that if it feels like you aren’t benefiting from practice you need to either re-evaluate how you practice or re-evaluate how you measure progress. Enjoy the process of practice, finding things to work on, improving those things and repeating the process. Enjoy the journey of self improvement that this provides you.

I can tell you that you have nothing to worry about in terms of “learning the game backwards,” I’ve personally always been a proponent of focusing on tech skill first before neutral game but at the end of the day there is no roadmap to getting good and there is no easy way to reach the next step. The only universal truth is that you get out of it what you put into it.

And don’t worry about people calling you lame. “Playstyle” is something people obsess a lot that isn’t a very useful thing to think about when gauging your improvement. When I was quite a bit worse than I am I was called campy, reliant on lasers, I used to be called the backwards facing Falco cause I “only use Bair / Utilt.” People like to assume that your playstyle in a certain way because that’s how you intend for it to be but in reality these are all just steps on your way to having a more robust style. There are a LOT of things to learn about this game and if you’re getting pretty good at a certain style that they like to call lame then feel free to take pride that you’ve got understanding in one part of the game but remain humble in that you know there are many other parts of the game to learn. Not because they’re “less lame” but because you need to expand your knowledge base to improve. Next time you get called lame just say "that's ok I'm just trying to get better." Honestly style is overrated at low levels cause realistically nothing is cool at low levels, just get good then you can shut em up later.

Lastly I can’t overstate how helpful these two books are relating to this type of stuff. If you’re dedicated to sticking to it and seeing how far you can go / what you can get out of melee then I highly suggest you read both of them!

Good luck dude.

Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey

Online pdf:

http://www.tinapse.ro/home/coltul-indrumatorului-coach/resurse-materiale-instrumente/W.%20Timothy%20Gallwey%20-%20The%20Inner%20Game%20Of%20Tennis.pdf

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Inner-Game-Tennis-Performance-ebook/dp/B003T0G9E4

Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin

Online pdf:

http://www.nordiccentre.org/downloads/The_art_of_learning_waitzkin__josh.pdf

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465

Waitzkin wrote an interesting book called The Art of Learning.

After he burned out to some extent on chess, he competed at a high level in full contact tai chi (no joke) and is now studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Marcelo Garcia. He thought methods for studying BJJ could benefit from techniques used in chess, and worked with Marcelo to set up www.MGInAction.com, a website with indexed videos of Marcelo teaching and competing.

This guy gets it. Games are a steady productivity drip that help you feel more in control/accomplished compared to what real life usually offers. The first step out of a cycle of suffering is to see that you are in one, which it sounds like you are doing. Engage your problems, make improvements, and keep trying. Feel free to PM me as well.

For related reading, try Reality is Broken and The Art of Learning. The latter, in particular, helps cultivate the perspective that makes success in other things as interesting as games can be.

Seriously though, there have been cases of this kind of thing. Josh Waitzkin in his book mentions how in one of the world Tai Chi Chuan tournaments he attended, the tournament played with the schedule and gave everybody 'heavy' food (everyone becomes hungry because matches are delayed). The point was to throw off the foreign combatants. The local teams already knew of the schedule alteration, so they planned their eating accordingly.

Some facts of life:

• You'll always be your own worst critic. You'll always notice things that you did wrong that other people won't pick up on. This is the other side of the Dunning-Kruger effect, and it typically gets worse the better you get.
  
• Practicing for 15 minutes in a stretch is OK. There's a cult of practice, where more is considered better, which isn't a bad thing, but it needs to be effective practice. Learn to recognize that you're beating yourself up and take a break, it'll make things more enjoyable and you'll get more out of it. You'll also slowly build stamina over time, as well.
  
• Foster a growth mindset, not a fixed one. I can tell from your post that you see yourself as either being good at the violin, or not, instead of seeing it as a skillset that you slowly get better at. People with a fixed mindset tend to break when they fail at certain tasks, because they view it as proof that they they do not have an ability, while people with a growth mindset recover more quickly because they see failure as a necessary part of the learning process. (The book Art of Learning is very good and goes into this topic.)
  
• It's okay to take a break from practicing the violin, or even stop. Most of all, music should be fun. Don't do something you hate, and it's okay to take a break until you figure out if it's something you really want to do.
  
  edit: grammar

There's a really great book on this topic called The art of learning by Joshua Waitzkin.

I can not recommend that book enough, it's very short and easy to read.

A lot of people think of skills as, a "ladder". You climb this ladder step-by-step as you practise.

But skill is a lot more like a landscape, with hills and valleys, peaks and pits. Think of it like you are pushing a ball in this landscape. If you're pushing a ball up a hill, and stop midway. The ball will roll down and you have to start over. Some times in this landscape there will be plateaus where you can rest without the ball rolling down.

And sometimes you will play a certain style and reach a hills peak. How does one improve if you've reached such a peak? You have to be willing to walk down this hill, in order to climb a larger mountain. This means, you have to be willing to go down in skill, momentarily, in order to improve in the long term. But that's okay, because if you have reached one hill peak before, your legs will be stronger and better able to climb the next peak.

This way of looking at skill, also highlights how people can play with completely different styles, and do equally well. There are many hills and peaks - not just one ladder.

In short, what I'm trying to get at, is that to improve, you have to force yourself out of your comfortzone. Figure out what your weaknesses are, and turn them in to strengths.

> The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.

I meant what's the point of saying what you did but I'll run with the conversation for a minute and elaborate. This may be much longer than I intended and I'm going to go do something soon so bear with my rushed thoughts. I'll give you some advice. It's possibly contradictory to a lot of the advice you'll read various places, and it might not make sense but roll with it for a minute. It's also possible I won't talk about Overwatch specifically at all.


Honestly, Gold is no better. You're just putting it on a pedestal in some sort of "grass is greener on the other side" thing. You're going to get there and be like, "these guys kind of aim better but they have to be even bigger idiots". Then you're going to want Platinum where people might be fun and more cooperative; once you get there, you're going to realize that it's still awful.


Let me take a step backwards and leave Overwatch for a minute. This book kind of talks about it, but when you're trying to learn a game or sport that is played in a competitive atmosphere, it is absolutely impossible to stress how important the fundamentals are. Fundamentals absolutely, by far, the most critical thing to work on and improve upon. Gimmicks will only take you so far and ultimately will stunt your growth.


This is apparent in Chess. There are hundreds of openings to learn, various tricks, traps, and other gimmicks. The Soviet Union absolutely dominated the international Chess scene for decades. Their school of Chess or approach was heavily focused on learning endgames. If you can't play properly with just four or five pieces, what can you do? Fundamentals are that important.


In StarCraft 1, Koreans dominated the game, way more heavily than they seem to in Overwatch, way more heavily than they do in League of Legends, and way more heavily than in StarCraft 2. How did they do it? They don't rely on rush strategies, tricks, or other gimmicks. They're absolutely fundamentally, mechanically strong. They just win against worse players because they're better. The details are an afterthought. Fundamentals are that important.


I see you post in Basketball subreddits. When NBA teams, the greatest Basketball players in the world practice, they're not playing real games. They're mostly doing drills and working on fundamentals, exercises, drills and very likely reviewing how other teams played recent games. Fundamentals are that important.


If you're trying to lose weight, it's actually really simple. Consume less calories than you burn. If you're at a caloric deficit, over time, you will lose weight. Don't look for trick diets, gimmicks that will allow you to still eat like a pig, etc. 70% of weightloss takes place in the kitchen. Fundamentals are that important.


Now, actually cutting back to Overwatch for a moment:

Why on Earth would it be any different? It isn't. Play better and you'll climb. Play worse and you'll fall. It's that simple. Yes, there are gimmicks, there are tricks. Find people to coordinate with and queue together. Avoid certain hours of the day when players are better on average (More applicable at higher SRs). For a few days, maybe a hundred games, you'll climb. Then you'll get stuck. You'll come back to reddit and you'll look for the next gimmick. Don't do that.



What to do instead:


The first thing you need to do is stop worrying about SR. Your SR absolutely does not mean anything. Nobody cares if you're 1500, 1750, 2000 or even 3000. It really doesn't matter. SR is a currency you spend to play against better players, and also a currency worse players spend to play against you. You know how sometimes you put money in a vending machine and the snack gets stuck? That's getting a leaver or someone throwing on your team. Shit happens. Don't let it ruin your day.


The next thing you need to do is stop giving a shit about your teammates. Don't worry about them. Climbing a ladder is never about individual games but rather consistency against a field of players across numerous games. The only thing consistent for you across numerous games is you. That's all you need to worry about. Anything else is a distraction.


The third thing you need to do is break Overwatch down to its fundamentals. Examples would be things like aim, ult usage, situational awareness, positioning, ult tracking. The heroes you play do not matter. The team comps you play them in do not matter. Work on those. People you're playing with and against have no understanding of the basic fundamentals of Overwatch. You have no understanding of the basic fundamentals of Overwatch. Work on those. As you start to get better at them, you'll climb.


You know the saying practice makes perfect? Absolutely 100% not true. Perfect practice makes perfect. There's something called deliberate practice and it's the fastest way to get better. Focus on one or two things at a time and just worry about practicing those. Get better at that and move on to something else. That's kind of where a lot of these tips and advice tidbits come from. Pick a small set of heroes, work on the fundamental skills such as aim and positioning, and you'll get better.




In summary (here's some very specific overwatch advice):


Pick three "simple" heroes. Do not play Hanzo/Windowmaker because they're complicated and somewhat different from the other characters. Do not play Tracer or Genji, they're mechanically challenging and and honestly, you simply can't play them well. Sombra is an edge case but I'd say don't play her. Don't play these five characters, ever.


Tanks: Pick one or two of Reinhardt, Winston Orisa(?). D.Va would be also fine.


DPS: Pick one or two of Soldier, McCree, Reaper.

Healers: Pick one or two of Mercy, Zenyatta, if you're really special, pick Ana. I'm completely unfamiliar with Moira, I can't comment on her.


You now have 3-6 heroes that are fairly "simple". Start playing them and focus on the fundamentals. Focus on the basics of Overwatch. Don't be toxic in chat. When you're higher SR you can start considering things like team comps etc and start working on more complicated heroes. The Windowmakers, the Tracers, the Junkrats etc.


I can almost guarantee you'll both be far more consistent and quite possibly pushing diamond by the end of this season or next season, depending on how much you're able to play. No tricky gimmicks, no fad diets, no shortcuts. Just strong fundamentals and you'll improve faster and peak higher than almost anyone else you come across in your competitive games.

Hope that helps.

your proportions are off. if you're looking to improve on that, i recommend these two books-

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way

The Art of Learning


the Marvel book will help with sketching and give you a really great grasp of the basics. it helped me so dam much and i still use it to this day.


The Art of Learning is a fantastic book! it has nothing to do with drawing or art itself, its all to do with learning. i got more from this book than any art teacher i've ever had. if you want to improve this is a must.

you might also want to try and use a reference too, that always helps.

check out posemaniacs for references to help with your anatomy or deviantArt's stock images that's always good

i hope what i've said helps you out

The issue with this line of thought is the lack of statistical awareness and self-progression. People who claim to be in ELO hell (a fictional place of their deluded nightmares) are simply not good. If they were, and they played more games, they would climb to their rating. Statistically, you will get placed exactly where you belong.

People need to focus on their inner game; stay calm, don't tilt, examine why you lose. I would recommend a fantastic book called The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin.

I'm sure there are a bunch of people that would be willing to do their best at answering whatever questions you have on here. Obviously, coaching is complex and there are rarely easy or obvious answers.

As for books, the books that I'd recommend these days:

[The Art of Learning] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465)

[The Inner Game of Tennis] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679778314/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=40113434767&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4260322089310012087&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8mdnpg1nf9_b)

[10 Minute Mental Toughness] (http://www.amazon.com/10-Minute-Toughness-Training-Program-Winning/dp/0071600639/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426395408&sr=1-1&keywords=10+minute+mental+toughness)

[Wooden on Leadership] (http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Leadership-Create-Winning-Organization/dp/0071453393/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426395634&sr=1-3&keywords=john+wooden)

Check out The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzken. It discusses learning styles and various learning processes along with the overlap of chess and martial arts. Fascinating read from one of Marcelo's Black Belts (who has done much more outside of BJJ, of course).

Figure out what type of learning style you have, figure out how you best take in information, and then optimize from there. In the end, it is about working your strengths and allowing the fundamentals to fade into intuition. Fundamentals are key to understanding the larger game. Tricks, traps, and novelties serve short term needs, while a larger understanding provides more sustainable winning strategies and allow us to think our way out of difficult situations.

For me, that means my main goal is to close doors that my opponent may use to escape through the use of grips, pressure, and movement. I consider myself in "end game" when I am in a high pressure position that requires a single grip to maintain which leaves 1 hand free to set things up and enable movement. From there, I am actively working between 2-3 submissions. I don't know if I'm ever really "ahead" but rather I know what options my opponent has and what I can do to counter those. I've closed all but 2 or 3 doors and he sees a delicious cookie on the other side of each. I'm hoping he is hungry enough to want a cookie; please eat a cookie.

Then again, no matter how many times I tell myself I'm going to cut them out, I apparently find myself hungry for cookies when rolling with people better than me. :-P

Squid and Dr. PP both recommend the art of learning, and the inner game of tennis and they're both godlike so I'd take their advice. Flow is really good too.

Something cool you could do is get into chess. I only played chess seriously for a few months really, but I feel like it gave me another angle to think about tactics and strategy in. Chess is really fun and it'll give you that same competitive brain feeling melee does without killing your hands.

/r/chess has lots of guides about how to get into the game and stuff. There's lots of cool websites now like www.chesstempo.com where you can do tons of tactics training puzzles that are really fun and make the learning curve for beginners a lot less steep than it was back in the day when chess books were the only option(which are great, but it's really hard as an absolute beginner to sit down with a chess book and actually make it through it).

If you're already like 2100 fide rated or some shit then just ignore this lol.

There is a lot of youtubers out there Necromaticer who are calm and informative and do good job at this. I think you should follow what fits your style. I recomend reading book called Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin it is one of very few books that changed the way I think about myself and how to use my abilities in the most optimal way.

You can be entertaining without being expressive. Look at some documentary channels they are entertaining without narrator getting exited about some battle that goes one a screen.

Nerves of steel come from confidence and being above fear. Confidence comes from practice and competition. Being above fear comes from a lifestyle of conquering fears.

If you want to be more comfortable on the street, figure out exactly what you're afraid of and get better at it. Are you afraid he's going to hit you? Learn boxing or muay thai or bjj. Are you afraid he's going to yell at you? Learn debate skills.

My dad was a firefighter for a decade. His dad trained WW2 bomber pilots. I asked my dad how he kept calm on intense calls. He said he would rely on his training and took every problem as it came. You have no idea what the scene is going to look like on your way there, but you can trust that you're the best prepared one there, so everyone's depending on you to take charge and lead. Planning ahead is very important, but more important is staying in the moment.

Meditation works out that muscle. Staying in the moment is a muscle in your brain that you have to work out. What fear and anxiety is is you living outside of the moment. Fear is you trying to bring the past into the present. Anxiety is you trying to predict the future. Live in the moment and take shit as it comes. The more you can do that, the more you can relax into chaotic situations with confidence. Just do your best and know that that's all anyone can do in life. We can only do our best.

Another thing is your mindset for life. Always do your best. Always give your fullest. Figure out your core values and live to them every day of your life. If you can say every day that you did your fucking best, then you are going to be able to say "I am ready to die today" and you won't walk around terrified of death. Death is the root fear of all the fears. If you can conquer the fear of death, you will be very strong.

.

There's a lot more to this, I'm just kind of rambling off what comes to mind before I go to work. But this will get you started. I wish you all the best and I hope I've helped some.

Some good resources are Shambhala, The Art of Learning, On Becoming a Leader, Better Under Pressure, Leading at the Edge, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and then this interview with Rickson Gracie (one of the greatest fighters to ever walk the Earth).

The biggest difference maker between a high level player who plays for fun and pro gamers is Deliberate Practice.

If you're going to rise from 1800 mmr to pro level, you'll need deliberate practice, and a lot of it. If you're not familiar with the term, here are a couple books and an article to introduce you to the subject. Learning these techniques will have benefits far beyond dota.

The first goal is to prepare your fundamentals. There are plenty of other comments in this thread to help you there. You should build a working knowledge of every hero in dota. How? Don't just play games. For every single hero in dota, do the following.

• watch a guide video to learn the hero. Learn their combos, playstyle.
  
• watch a pro replay. Take notes.
  
• go into demo mode. CS with no items for 10 minutes. I don't care if it's fucking Techies. You need to know how to lasthit at heroes you want to play. Spawn some enemies and practice the stuff you saw the pro doing. If you're not sure how to do something, find a video that breaks it down.
  
• Play a game as that hero
  
• Go back into demo mode and do no items CS for 10 minutes.
  
• practice some more combos.
  
• play 2-4 more games on the hero.
  
  At this point, ask yourself if you can see yourself playing this hero long term. You should be looking to whittle down the pool from ~115 to ~20. If so:
  
  
• watch your worst replay and take notes.
  
• play at least 10 more games on that hero. Watch replays of the worst ones and take notes.
  
  At this point, you should have 700-800 games of dota under your belt. If you haven't improved to at least ~3.5k during this whole process (yes I know you've been learning heroes.), then pro dota is not in the cards for you.
  
  If you have improved, choose AT MOST 5 heroes, the best heroes you've got, to become your hero pool. Why? Because once you've learned the fundamentals, everything you can improve upon requires playing against better players. The longer you're in the trench, the longer you're solidifying bad habits. You're getting away with stuff that will be punished at higher mmr. Therefore...
  
  The second goal is to gain MMR. Like, at least 5000 higher than your current MMR. One important thing to realize is that it's possible to obtain a high MMR without any concept of teamwork whatsoever. You can begin working on your teamwork now, but KEEP IN MIND that this practice can be counterproductive at low MMR, as many patterns you will learn will change as you get better.
  
  Spam. Get a coach. Tryhard. Watch replays. Get yourself out of the trench. DON'T buy an account. Don't rely on your teammates. Watch replays, take notes. Win at all costs. We want to be playing against better players.
  
  If you actually make it to 6k, I think you'll know enough to be able to know how to take the next step.
  
  Good luck!

Listed below is a list of resources that help me get started with entrepreneurship, I recommend that you start listening to podcast first and then migrate to the books; if you can do both. Indulge!

Business Podcast-
http://www.tropicalmba.com
http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com
https://www.stansberryradio.com/James-Altucher
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com
http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com
http://mixergy.com
http://freedomfastlane.com

Business books-
http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Napoleon-Hill/dp/1453670114
http://www.amazon.com/The-50th-Law-50-Cent/dp/006177460X
http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/dp/0307465357
http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416
http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Yourself-James-Altucher-ebook/dp/B00CO8D3G4
http://www.amazon.com/MONEY-Master-Game-Financial-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00MZAIU4G
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465


Internet blogs/resources-
http://www.reddit.com
http://www.quora.com
https://growthhackers.com
http://www.tropicalmba.com


All of the sites listed above will give you an idea of how the game is played if you want to learn more in-depth I recommend https://www.udemy.com/courses/ . If you have any questions just hit me up! hope this helps or at least give you an idea.
GOOD LUCK!!!

Thanks for the recommendation, it sounds like an interesting book so I'll likely pick it up. Allow me to make a recommendation of my own: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin.

Young chess master becomes disillusioned and turns to Tai Chi, which leads him into transferring his competitive spirit into Tai Chi push hands, where he becomes the world champion. Eventually he switches again, this time over to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Along the way he learns a lot about the nature of performance and how to learn efficiently to a master level in different disciplines.

I'll second this. I don't know if I would put it under the "self help" line of books but it is quite interesting and will change how you think about certain subjects. Take it slow, it does get a little slower towards the end. You will also take different points from it from multiple reads.

You might also enjoy The Art of Learning.

Sorry for the delay! Here comes a long response.

> How did you become an exchange student? What did you do? Was it with a school or was it an external thing?

While taking Japanese in high school, my teacher told us about Rotary International. They do all kinds of charitable work and whatnot, and one of the things they do is sponsor students for foreign exchange. Here's a link to find your nearest club. Of course my parents helped me pay for it, but the cost was relatively low. Around $3k if I remember correctly, for a whole year of living abroad with a host family and going to school over there. I was 17 at the time. Highly recommend checking it out.

> Will 100 words a day be enough to be fluent in a year?

If by "100 words a day", you mean memorizing 100 words a day, then no, of course not. Memorizing vocab is important, obviously--and I'd recommend starting with something like this: 1000 most common Japanese words.--but you'll hit a wall very quickly if that's your only source of study.

If you just want to speak 100 words a day that you already know, then yes, that's an awesome place to start. The secret to learning languages is to speak the words that you know every day, as often as possible. I recommend finding someone to talk to, and there are a million websites out there to help you out with that. Check out /r/languagelearning and /r/Japanese, if you haven't already.

> How is memory retention after not being exposed to Japanese after a month?

Hard to say; that's a pretty subjective question. My memory retention after a month was phenomenal; now after 10+ years, not so much. But again, that's going to change with the individual, how much exposure he had previously, etc etc. Type of exposure is important too, I think. After I lived in Japan for 11 months, for example, my memory retention was obviously much better than it would have been after taking four years of high school Japanese and then never looking at another hiragana after graduation.

> How much do you think emotion affects learning? How much do you think desire affects learning, as opposed to no desire at all?

These are interesting questions, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get as deep into answering them as I might if we were talking face to face. Learning is a fascinating topic--check out The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin--and one's capacity for learning can be affected by all sorts of things.

To address your question specifically, both desire and emotion can affect learning, and it's my opinion that emotion plays a larger part in that effect.

For example, take a student who hates going to school and doesn't want to learn a goddamned thing. That student still recognizes the importance of getting his diploma, so he puts his nose to the grindstone, sits through his awful classes, and he graduates.

On the flip side, a student who wants nothing more than to graduate with a 4.0 might have a hard time paying attention if he's constantly distracted because he is depressed, anxious, angry or melancholic.

See the difference? Our brains will take in information and force us to learn things whether we want it to or not. But if our mental energy is being sapped by our negative emotions, that job becomes a lot more difficult. What you are really referring to here is focus. If you can get around a lack of desire and your conflicting negative emotions and find a place of focus, you'll learn.

(On that note, if lack of focus is an issue for you, start meditating--check out headspace. They have a fantastic app that will give you 10 free 10-minute sessions. I use the app all the time and have cycled the 10 free sessions probably 100 times. No need to buy the premium version to reap the benefits. Just do one session at night before bed. We can definitely get more into the other benefits of meditating if you're ever interested.)

This book is a great place to start, even if only to inspire you. I really enjoyed it and listen to it about once a year if not more.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465

Happy to someone interested in learning how to learn, since it is the ultimate skill. Happy learning!

I couldn't quite get into The Art of Learning, but it is well-reviewed, and written by a high-level practitioner of BJJ.

> I still have a bad attitude/ego problem with BJJ. It's really unfortunate, because I'm actually pretty terrible and lose almost every fight I get into, and I know my frustration/lack of perspective is holding me back.

Might also want to check out Josh Waitzkin's book

Piggybacking this comment for "how to learn", which I see other people are curious about.

2 books that I've found helpful in terms of learning how to learn, and would recommend to others:

• Benedict Carey - How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens
  
  
  
• Josh Waitzkin - The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance
  
  You might recognise the last author's name - Josh became a bit of a sensation when he won his first national chess championship at age 9, proceeded with an illustrious career for the next 10 years, until he decided he wanted to learn martial arts - and became the world champion of Tai Chi Chuan.
  
  Both are good reads (neither are exceptional), and will give a good understanding of how to go about acquiring a new skill set with the least amount of wasted time and effort.
  
  

Okay!

If you're not into podcasts, they might be a good place to start.
Tim Ferris is probably the best one for this type of thing right now. He has a fan subreddit and someone has written about their favourite episodes here.

Ferris also talks about journaling, which I also recommend. here's an article on it.

There are books on learning, such as The Art of Learning. A guy called Derek Sivers summarises all the books he reads here. He's read and summarised one on language learning here.

On learning effectively, in addition to the links above you could read this or this. Someone on Reddit has also talked about motivation, if that is something you struggle with. Finally, someone was kind enough to summarise a course they did here. This guy's blog might help you.

There is also some stuff on memorisation which is useful for language learning here, here, and here. There is also the sub /r/memorization for it.

Anything related to mnemonics is useful in my opinion. I use them for vocabulary primarily, but I've also built a number memorisation system.


I have a multireddit of the subs along those lines that I frequent, but you might only want to subscribe to those that are relevant for you: https://www.reddit.com/user/Virusnzz/m/life/

There are some more general blogs here, here, and here.

Anything further I think is going to depend on your interests. If you have some things you've had a mind to teach yourself or work on feel free to mention them and I might have something.

I have three of them. Meditations, Tao Te Ching, and Man's Search for Meaning.

I read Tao Te Ching many years ago. I think it was above my reading level at the time as I can't recall much about it. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was reading or properly digesting it.

I have the Gregory Hays' version of Meditations. It's up next after I'm done Flow. So far Flow mentions quite a few things I recognize from Stoicism. Directly mentions Diogenes in the first chapter.

Man's Search for Meaning will probably follow shortly after Meditations.

I've only heard of the Bhagavad Gita, so that's as familiar as I am with it. I assume it's a book of wisdom or something like that from India.

I do make notes of the books I read, so if you'd like I can forward them to you when they're ready. Currently putting together some for How to Read a Book, The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance, and Atomic Habits.

Read The Art of Learning

I have a book to recommend to you. Day[9] recommanded it before me to:
The Art of Learning
Beyond the fact that, among other things, this book addresses stress issues in tournament style events, it is also written in a relaxed way and talks a lot about chess, the spirtual father of SC.
It's about the journy of an international chess champion and how he overcame his personality flaws on his way to greatness, and in more than one aspect.
I deeply recommand it for you. Perhaps you should take a short break from SC, study this book a bit, and come back refreshed and armed with new tools to address your anxiety and panic issues.
Just in case you're a bit sceptical, in chapter three of this book (i think), real solidified excersises and methods to overcome different aspects of stress under pressure are supplied, that will, in time, turn your stress and worries to useful tools to improve with and from.
Hope you pick this book up, it helped me alot. And still does.
gl, hf.
And ggs all around

This is a great book about the subject, with a lot of stoic ideas throughout: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396904121&sr=8-1&keywords=the+art+of+learning

The whole book is awesome, I posted my favourite quotes here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/21pl8l/some_amazing_stoic_quotes_from_the_book_the_art/

The Art of Learning

The Art of Learning seems like a good place to start.

There is this one book by Josh Kaufman which you might find helpful

The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast! https://www.amazon.in/dp/1591846943/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_GbjTDb8RNVJRT

Then there is a another book which is also said to be pretty good

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance https://www.amazon.in/dp/0743277465/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_TgjTDb2W9TWFD


You can also check the art of deliberate learning where you improve yourself constantly through examination.

You can find good chunks of this in the book - Grit by Angela Duckworth


Others things that help me learn anything quickly is by learning from my mistakes and asking these 3 questions

1. What did I do well?
   
   
2. What did I not do well?
   
   
3. What could I have done better?
   
   Also make sure once you learn these things you can constantly put them into practice.
   
   For example with the books... a person who learns 10 books and applies whatever he learns is hella lot powerful than a person who just skims through a 1000..
   
   See what works for you and get started on this amazing journey
   
   Cheers

> in my personal belief visualization is important in various facets of life, not merely in relation to obstacles and failures, for example I have found that visualization carries a notably large weight in regards to goals and the accomplishment of them.

Interesting, I haven't used visualization much, but I'm starting to see its value. Visualizing obstacles and failure seems useful when trying to create or stop habits, and writing down visualizations daily seems like a solid approach. Would you recommend any resources that provide further guidance about visualization?

> I further apologize for any inconvenience the lack of alignment my page numbers have caused you

No inconvenience at all, I knew something was up when your page numbers mapped to my Chapter 2, but the quotes are clearly from Chapter 1.

> I´ll keep that in mind for future posts and not document the page number in order to avoid confusion.

Thanks! If you feel the need to translate to or from our page numbers, the book preview on Amazon matches my version.

This has been a good book for me. It's by Josh Waitzkin who became a champion in both Chess and Martial Arts tournaments, and it shows how he went about learning chess one piece at a time as well as tips on avoiding burnout, and building your own 'zone' for tournaments and the such. I highly recommend it.

[The Art of Learning]
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465), by Josh Waitzkin

I picked it up a while back on the recommendation of Sean "Day9" Plott, the Starcraft 2 caster. The author is very entertaining and informative, outlining his early life as a young chess-champion to how he grew to tackle the Martial Arts with similar success. Waitzkin really helped change my perspective on how to go about learning new things. I would especially recommend it to people that have trouble dealing with failure or just have trouble trying new things and sticking to them.

> So next time you are meditating, look for a "bucket of water" and stick your head in it. (What are you avoiding?)

Awesome analogy. I totally agree with your sentiments.

+1

Learning skills is a skill in-of-itself.

The Art of Learning is a superbly written book on this. I love the audiobook. The author is sincere yet concise. Reminds me of a younger Culadasa actually.

This is an interesting book authored by Josh Waitzkin (the main character in Searching for Bobby Fischer was based loosely on him). Not meant to teach how to play, but more how to learn to play.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465

Practice, practice, practice, practice. Getting good at maths is 90% equal to the practice you put in. People who seem "naturally" good at maths, most of the time, are just used to trying everything in their head and thus get more practice. Also, they may have done more in the past, and gotten used to using the smaller concepts they need to solve a bigger problem.

2 good books about learning: Waitzkin, The Art of Learning and Polya, How to Solve It.

It's too easy to rate our suffering by our pain (but pain is subjective, even though it can be debilitating and IS REAL). In fact, measuring suffering by pain is a metric that 'makes sense,' what could be a better way? I don't know, but I know there is no luck in these things, good or bad. There are simply things we can't control and things we can, things we accept, can't or can- then make choices that we can't always predict the outcome of or even always see we are making.

I remember recently a really similar experience to your wife's apology. I've never heard one that mattered yet, but it was in a conversation where I outlined why what my wife intended in her statements and behavior due to emotional reasoning was as far as I can tell an attempt to elicit a reaction and 'hurt' in me. How it was abusive even though I wasn't hurt and didn't react, that I didn't care if she understands, I don't think she 'bad' for doing it, but I'm me and I find that something I can't and won't accept. It wasn't in a 'me verse her' way. I just waited until she was calm after doing my own thing with my dogs and son, then forced a conversation specifically on that later, wouldn't let her paint feelings or thoughts or intentions on me or change the subject. I criminalized that behavior MORE than I used to, but on a different level I used it as an experience to highlight how in words and actions I keep on and DO accept her for who she is, but it is in opposition to what she does. Then how her continuing that pattern is not enough to keep me here forever. I don't divorce threat and she has enough implied abandonment fear, it wasn't a threat or spoke threateningly, just from a place (I hope) of objective realness to what I feel and what I need and the unchanging truth of both.

That was the first time she on her own was like, huh, wow- yea that was abuse. I think she did say sorry (but they are pretty half-assed and really don't matter when they come so far). In the past she would say 'sorry you got angry' or 'sorry you got your feelings hurt' before telling me how sensitive I am or her behavior 'because of' me or mine or imaginary slights.

I guess my point is that if I think of myself as lucky or unlucky based on things I can't control or (maybe wrongly) accept, if I focus on the struggle rather than the coping, growth, and choices that lessen or end my suffering or avoid it in any ways I can.. like I think the goal is not to suppress our suffering or to (in hidden ways) use it as an excuse for our pain, but instead a realer acceptance of reality now and a chance to get stronger in a way. To not do so, it is too easy to perpetuate the martyrdom that led and locked me here in years past.

I need to take care myself whether I have the unluckiest wife or not. I need to improve my situation and my state and my self-care whether I chose my medical stuff I whine about or not (I didn't), whether my son has a lifetime health issue, whether or not all the things I have on my plate and whether I control them or not- I control me and I have a stronger role today and consequently in my future and fortunes than the luck of the last roll. We aren't static and we aren't weak in this way.

That story of the 'abuse' or apology was not actually what I meant by the only times I've received empathy. I don't really know for sure or care if my wife feels or shares 'real' empathy with me. It would be nice, but I'm not so sure I'd recognize it from where I was when hurt and resentful, even now I would doubt it, but it doesn't much matter what she feels to my life or identity. The times I experience what I think is greater empathy coincide exactly with the times I do NOT accept abuse, am not defensive (but instead protective), and am not allowing her to hurt me. If I couldn't get there in this marriage, I would have a real NEED to leave. If I ever lose whatever growth or changes are happening inside me that allow that, I will have a real need to leave. What I'm trying to say is that no one can empathize with someone that they don't 'see' as a person, as an individual, or as 'themselves'. They can't empathize unless they know 'who' you are and then accept you as yourself on some level. So to me, the times that I am unwaverable in my identity, in who I am, and in my unwillingness to be anyone I'm not or pushed or pulled, to me I've experienced greater empathy from my wife in those times (I believe). Like an understanding that I have feelings and that my feelings matter- because they do- because I do my best to honor them now and be 'me' regardless anything she can say or do. For now, no matter what she storms, rages, tantrums, or threatens I will budge a single inch from that place- and she can't make me.

I think it might bring her a modicum of security in the process and that is a valuable thing to a pwBPD. I don't do it for her though, it never worked when I tried. I like myself too much to return to the place I lived so many years. She's welcome to join me, my hand is out to help her up, but I can't hold my arm out forever and I think she is FINALLY starting to realize this. She may never, mind you, I can't control that and I feel like I will be okay independent the outcomes I can't control.

I think you will too.


EDIT:
This is a really cool quote I feel relates better to what I was trying to say than I could from a book about a guy that succeeded over adversaries. In this part he is talking about what he could do to overcome and grow through the things that he couldn't control- fair or not removed from the equation.
He called this chapter 'The Soft Zone' it's only an excerpt and everything in brackets was me trying to add bits to pull different areas in the chapter to a semblance of a point:

>Another way of envisioning the importance of the Soft Zone is through an ancient Indian parable that has been quite instructive in my life for many years: A man wants to walk across the land, but the earth is covered in thorns. He has two options--one is to pave his road, to tame ALL of nature into his compliance. The other is to make sandals. Making sandals is the internal solution. Like the Soft Zone, it does not base success on a submissive world or overpowering force, but on intelligent preparation and cultivated resilience. ..............The more I'd try to [cope mentioned earlier but omitted here and] block the distractions out the louder it would get in my head. [He felt alone in this problem, started being bothered by things he never noticed before] .....I realized that I could think to the beat of the song [his obstacles / distractions / things making him lose his focus and self] ..I couldn't count on the world to be silent [or caretake him], so my only option was to become at peace with the noise.

He had to accept some things in a newer deeper way. That doesn't mean he had to remain or remain the same, it doesn't mean you have to stay in your marriage or not. I'm not telling you you're doing anything wrong or earning your abuse. I'm saying make your own sandals and figure out where you feel like you want and need to walk. I guess I just really think we all always need to be looking into ourselves with honesty and come to know our strengths and weaknesses or flaws (we all have them!), do what we can for ourselves in inspection of our roles and any way we can grow no matter how much weight we feel (that's strength training right there!) The world won't create a painless path, antagonistic disordered wives certainly won't, they just add more bars for us until we remove them or get broader. IDK, his parable was better without my inputs, I just thought it was a really cool quote from the book 'The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey'

Another book to add to this list is [The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465)

Fantastic book about using previous learning and incorporating it into your new smash learning through cycling/funnelling information.

It's Josh Waitzkin's book. He's the kid chess player that "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is about. http://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302126323&sr=8-1

Josh Waitzkin's book will help you.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465

This is true in many disciplines. Josh Waitzkin also talked about this in his book the art of learning. In both his chess carreer as his tai chi carreer, the time off he took, was very much a key factor in his success. Being able to empty your mind, and balance out your head. While competitors where pushed hard by their parents, his dad took him fishing out in the sea the week before a tournament, so he would feel refreshed and focussed when he returned.

A must read for everyone trying to master a skills, wether it is sc2, chess, martial arts, or anything else. (was also recommended by day9)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465

> though I'm sure we'd get closer in person.

I am sure of this as well.

> The bolognese masters and spadone/montante are the only ones I'm familiar with

There are a couple of solo drills translated and performed by Keith Farrell, He has one video going into pretty good detail as to how it's performed. The second video on the other hand is just him and Jake Norwood working out how to perform the drill with less explanation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoK8nvv0nZo
Keith Farrell and Jake Norwood

That being said, IF you believe that adding "frog DNA" to your HEMA is okay, there are plenty of other arts to take forms/katas from. But that is a whole other subject.

> the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel

Thanks for the book suggestion! I'll pick it up soon (I have about 8 books I need to read before February, so it will be a while before I pick it up). I'm been suggesting The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills and The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

Awesome that you are following your dreams!

I'm in process of doing the same as you, going to college after loitering in the armed forces for half a decade. To be honest though, I haven't been totally idle, I have spent my time on "Learning how to learn" since school got in the way of my education.

I like philosphy and especially history of ideas, I find that it provides a nice overview and structure to different ideas which makes it easier to grasp new ideas, put them into context and categorize them. I think philosophy is the most underestimated subject today, philosophy provides a bridge between the social and natural sciences. http://qz.com/635002/teaching-kids-philosophy-makes-them-smarter-in-math-and-english/
Even though that study is about children, I think that the results can be transferred to adults.

But learning stuff is all about method and exploiting how your brain works. This book is about mindset https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465
And this book is all about method https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X

Hope this helps some, and good luck with your education :)

Required reading for people looking to legitimately get better at Dota (especially when you've played for a long time with little improvement):

Talent is Overrated : What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

and

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

While these books clearly do not focus on Dota, the ideas contained in these books are probably the most helpful ideas in making you a better player, in terms of what your practice and mentality needs in order to get better.

What counts is spending your time you got here to the fullest. I get more satisfaction from improving in a truly competitive field with great accessibility.

The skills I learn are easily transferable to other parts of life. For instance I deal way better with heat of the moment situations when I used to be a person that would freeze. I learned how to instruct a group in a complex topics which actually got me a teaching job. Furthermore I learned how to analyse and dissect each and every thing I have trouble with based on the principles I aquired by watching the best gamers there are or the best educational streamers and applying their underlining principles. University hasn't taught me 1/10th of my critical thinking skills. The structure of becoming good at something are fundamentally the same (I recommend the Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin)

I've also met people from every walk of life, ranging from an actual Sir, to Billionaires, to stand up comedians, to truly unique personalities from all over the world while picking up three languages other than my mothertongue. You know, while playing games and having a shit load of fun and having my competitive bone stroked which actually satisfies me that is. With some games, I can even do it on the road. On a reasonably low budget.

I played 11 years of competitive soccer and I can find no noticeable difference other than that I could be a little more in shape. There are however downsides soccer has which gaming does not.

There definitely. Here's a great book about learning/adapting/and improving. Fascinating read that I highly recommend.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465

>Certo. Una volta fuori dal liceo probabilmente mi sono fatto il mazzo triplo rispetto ai miei compagni di liceo. Molti di loro si sono accontentati di trovare un lavoro. A questo punto è l'abitudine a fregarti dandoti nel breve termine una sensazione di comfort, nel medio termine mancanza di stimoli e incapacità di smuoverti, nel lungo temine accettazione e disillusione.
>
>Ogni giorno devo imparare qualcosa di nuovo perché il mio lavoro rimane sempre lo stesso ma cambia e si affina sempre. Da vent'anni sempre stimolante perché devo trovare soluzioni affidabili e valide con tecniche e tecnologie nuove che sorpassano ogni anno lo stato dell'arte.
>
>L'importante é imparare ad imparare. Guarda https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
>
>Imparare ad imparare non e' solo una questione mentale. Leggi https://www.amazon.it/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465 oppure https://www.amazon.it/Mastery-Keys-Success-Long-Term-Fulfillment/dp/0452267560/
>
>Specialization is for insects, Heinlein. https://www.elise.com/quotes/heinlein_-_specialization_is_for_insects
>
>Imparare ad imparare ti protegge dalla specializzazione in una nicchia lavorativa insignificante.