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Learn, Improve, Master, by Nick Velasquez
How to Develop Any Skill and Excel at It
Matt Karamazov
June 15, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 24 minutes
I was standing in the center of the ring, arguing with the referee, years before I ever heard of Nick Velasquez.
This was back in Russia, during my third heavyweight fight, immediately after getting my nose broken by my opponent, some crazy Russian with arms bigger than most people’s legs.
Clearly, I disagreed with the referee’s decision to stop the fight (what kind of fighter SUBMITS to having the fight ended while they still have their eyes open and their lungs full of breath?!), but I gained some valuable feedback that day.
Getting feedback, I’ve come to learn, is essential to mastering any skill.
Ideally, you’d also get this feedback and act on it as soon as humanly possible. That’s how you improve, how you move along the path toward mastery.
It’s no use hearing the words you’ve just sung minutes or hours after singing them. Or knowing whether you made the basket tomorrow. You need immediate feedback in order to make the most progress possible.
For me in that ring, the feedback I got was that I need to keep my hands up!
From that fight onward, I made it a FOCUS of mine to work on my defense, holding my gloves higher and closer to my face, dodging punches instead of just taking them like some dummy, and working on my footwork to get myself out of trouble in the future.
I applied the feedback I had been given, and you know what?
I won my next fight by unanimous decision! It wasn’t even close.
My next opponent never even got CLOSE to hurting me, I added another W to my record, and I came out smarter and stronger at the end.
But back to Nick Velasquez…
He’s the author of Learn, Improve, Master, the complete breakdown of which is the latest addition to the Stairway to Wisdom.
The breakdown itself is about 9,900 words, covering all the Key Ideas, Book Notes, Action Steps, and more.
It’ll only take you about 38 minutes to read the whole thing, and in it, you’ll learn how to master any skill and make astounding progress in any sport or activity you want to get better at.
You can read the full breakdown here, but I’ll give you a little preview in this email so you can decide whether to check out the full one later.
Again, totally free.
I should actually say “free for right NOW,” because it’s going back behind the paywall very shortly.
Then it’s just for members only at the Stairway to Wisdom.
Alright now, let’s learn how to learn with Nick Velasquez!
This Book is For:
*Beginners who are eager to develop new skills and expand their horizons, and who want a detailed, step-by-step playbook for gaining mastery, without wasting their efforts on practice strategies that haven't stood the test of time.
*Ambitious students who want to gain a distinct competitive advantage in the modern academic environment, or those students who simply want to pass all their exams with flying colors and with much less time spent studying.
*Passionate, dedicated teachers and coaches who wish to bring the latest science and most up-to-date pedagogical techniques into their classrooms, lecture halls, and training facilities, thereby maximizing the probability of success of the students and athletes entrusted to their care.
*Lifelong learners who want to gain mastery, or at least make astounding progress, in a new pursuit or activity as quickly as possible, and in the most efficient way possible too.
Summary:
“Learning is the greatest power of the human mind. Everything we've built, everything we've created, everything we've become has been the result of our ability to learn. And this great power is inherent in all of us. We are made to learn."
The athletic, artistic, and intellectual achievements of the great masters have always seemed so...magical. So...unattainable. Beyond anything we could ever hope to replicate. Until now.
In Learn, Improve, Master, Nick Velasquez pulls back the curtain on skill acquisition and mastery and shows that high proficiency and expertise isn't something reserved for a chosen few, but something that's attainable for all of us.
Attainable, that is, if we follow the proven principles of practice and learning as laid out in this book. Attainable does not, of course, mean easy. In choosing to become more than "just okay" at something, we are choosing to commit to a level of discipline and focus uncommon in the eyes of many.
But at the end of the day, the universe rewards effort, exertion, and striving. We need to go beyond what we think we can do if we want to find out how far we can really go. And as Nick reveals in the book, mastery isn't something you'll ever "arrive" at. It's a lifelong process of learning, discovery, and progress, because as they say, behind the mountains are more mountains.
If you've ever seen someone excel at the highest level of athletics; if you've ever seen someone perfectly execute a spectacular dance move, put together a phenomenal meal, or spellbound an audience with a stirring speech and wanted to do that too, this book will work with you to make that a reality.
In the book, you'll learn how to:
Use your memory like top memory champions and remember anything you want
Optimize practice like elite musicians, chess players, and athletes
Build training habits that stick
Overcome obstacles, setbacks, and plateaus
Choose mentors and coaches that will help you develop your potential
Accelerate learning and become a master of your craft
Keep this book by your side as you attempt to learn any new skill or craft and you'll be able to progress so much further and faster than you'd ever be able to on your own. That's partly because what other people have done, you can learn to do.
You can also shorten your learning curve by reading about the mistakes others have made and what they've figured out on their own, without having to go through this painful process all by yourself.
Now, bear in mind, mastery is still going to be a painful process that you'll have to go through. Nobody gets to skip that on their way to greatness.
But by learning the foundational concepts that we're going to cover in this breakdown, and by absorbing the wisdom of people like Leonardo da Vinci, Usain Bolt, Ernest Hemingway, Michael Jordan, Garry Kasparov, Simone Biles, Stephen King, Michael Phelps, Martha Graham, Tiger Woods, Jiro Ono, Serena Williams, and many more, you're going to put yourself in a much better position to win. Simply put, you'll be stacking the probabilities of success in your favor.
Longtime readers of the Stairway to Wisdom will be familiar with the excellent book, Make It Stick, which I consider to represent the gold standard when it comes to books on learning. That being said, it covers different ground than Learn, Improve, Master, so I highly recommend reading both.
The former is better for succeeding academically, so students and teachers would benefit most from reading it, and the latter is more about skill acquisition, which would primarily benefit athletes and creatives. Again, read both. But just know that they complement each other in different ways.
There are very few wasted words in Learn, Improve, Master, which makes writing a summary quite difficult! As is so often the case with books I feature on the Stairway to Wisdom, most people would benefit significantly from reading this book cover to cover.
My advice, however, is to take one specific skill you're interested in learning and apply what you read in this book directly to ensure that you make the most astounding progress in the shortest period of time.
That being said, you could also keep returning to this book every single day for your entire life and still not exhaust its usefulness. Mastery never ends. Behind the mountains are more mountains. You never "arrive," because you make the path by walking.
The endlessly fascinating part of all this, though, is that you can never, ever know where you'll end up unless you set out on the path in the first place. As Friedrich Nietzsche said:
“There exists in the world a single path along which no one can go except you: whither does it lead? Do not ask, go along it."
Key Ideas:
#1: The Foundation of All Learning
“The principles we've covered - neuroplasticity, specialization, association, chunking, and automation - are the foundation of all learning.
Our brain rewires itself through practice, creating clusters of neural connections composed of associations between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that specialize in what we repeatedly do. When reinforced, these connections move from our conscious awareness to our subconscious, becoming almost automatic.
Then, our conscious mind is free again to process new tasks and add complexity to our growing abilities. Whether we go into French cooking, sculpting, or golf, these are the processes taking place behind the scenes as we learn. And they change the way we think as much as they change the physical structures of our brain."
The above principles are the foundation of all learning. I'll briefly describe each one right here, and then we'll move on to a discussion of one of the most powerful principles when it comes to application.
Neuroplasticity: This is the term for the human brain's ability to reshape itself based on what we experience and what we practice. It's one of the most awe-inspiring features of the brain - that it can literally transform and strengthen itself based on the inputs we give it.
Specialization: This refers to the process of the brain rewiring itself to perform certain tasks and activities more efficiently and effectively. We make progress on what we practice, so specialization will occur when we practice swinging a baseball bat, performing a dance step, etc.
Over time, as the neurons involved in this specific activity become myelinated (Key Idea #4), our technique and form flows more smoothly, we expend less and less effort in performing the action, and so on.
Association: Clusters of neural connections become associations, such that we learn to associate different inputs with certain outputs and sequences of behaviors with their natural results. You twist your hips as you're throwing a punch, for example, twisting on the balls of your feet at the same time, and this becomes an association that becomes less conscious and more automatic over time.
Chunking: When associations grow complex, they lead to chunking. By this, Nick means that in order to deal with this new level of complexity, our brains group together several different pieces of information rather than individually.
He uses the example of reading when we associate each letter with its sound and what they mean and sound like when they come together to form words. The complexity of this association grows until we're forced to "chunk" the information into words and sentences.
Automation: Over time, this process becomes more automatic, and we don't have to consciously process the sound of each letter or the muscle movement involved in swinging a baseball bat. We just read, or just swing.
This automaticity is what we associate with mastery, such as when we watch the "effortless" defensive maneuvers of Floyd Mayweather or the "artless" strokes of an Olympic swimmer. What they've learned to do is extend less raw brain power on performing these movements, and so increase their efficiency and overall effectiveness. This is what mastery looks like.
We'll talk more about forming and strengthening neural connections in Key Idea #4, but this neural process is the goal of practice. We're effectively turning our neural pathways into a speedway, thereby making them less conscious (and awkward), and more fluid and masterful.
#2: Focus on the Fundamentals
“Our focus must be on the fundamentals of our craft: the moves, knowledge, and techniques that are most frequently used and that make the strongest impact. These parts form the base for everything else and are essential for mastering the skill."
Masters never place themselves above the fundamentals. Amateurs believe that they're too "advanced" to practice dribbling or to brush up on their footwork, and so they're mildly shocked to see people like Kobe Bryant practicing dribbling and Mike Tyson spend hours and hours and hours perfecting basic boxing footwork.
Amateurs want to skip right ahead to being able to dunk and write the next Great American Novel and smash home runs, but masters go back to basics and develop the fundamental skills that make all the flashier elements of their sport or craft possible at all.
This is yet another manifestation of the 80/20 Rule, or the Pareto Principle, which states that 80 percent of the results will be driven by just 20 percent of the causes.
Mastering the fundamentals - to the extent that this is even achievable - is what makes mastery possible in the first place, and so we must never believe that we're too advanced to keep practicing the 80 percent. We're not.
#3: The Very First Skill to Master
"Meta-learning (learning how to learn) should be the skill that precedes all others. Knowing the principles and strategies of effective learning will maximize the time and energy we put into anything else, as well as optimize our work in improving and mastering our chosen craft."
Speaking of learning the basics, learning how to learn is literally what makes all other learning possible. As they say, if you have 60 minutes to chop down a tree, you should spend the first 55 minutes sharpening your axe, and that's what meta-learning is all about.
There aren't too many better books to introduce you to the principles behind successful learning than Make It Stick, so I highly suggest checking out my complete breakdown of that book here. It will demystify learning, as well as dispel many of the myths and falsehoods surrounding effective study habits.
Learning how to learn is probably the 1% of things you can study that's going to lead to 99% of your results, an extreme version of the Pareto Principle we spoke about in the last Key Idea. Knowing how to learn in the first place is going to put you ahead of so many of your competitors.
Not only that, but you'll be able to make even more progress, faster, and eventually you'll be so far ahead that no one who doesn't apply the principles of successful learning will ever be able to catch up to you.
Book Notes:
“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all."
“Learning proceeds until death and only then does it stop...Its purpose cannot be given up for even a moment. To pursue it is to be human, to give it up to be a beast."
“Automatic processing (aka automaticity) does not discriminate between desired behaviors and undesired ones. If we repeat bad habits or keep making the same mistakes, that's what we'll reinforce and automate - and they will be harder to correct later on. We must be careful, then, of what we automate to avoid transferring the wrong things into our subconscious."
“Attributing Mozart’s mastery to innate abilities is a disrespect to the lifetime of dedication he put into his craft."
“Whenever possible, we should mix several input modes in our learning: have a coach or teacher explain it to us (explanation), watch others do it (observation), follow along (imitation), and then experiment on our own (experimentation). Using more than one input mode will for a stronger understanding and help with memorizing later."
Action Steps:
So you've finished reading. What do you do now?
Reading for pleasure is great, and I wholeheartedly support it. However, I am intensely practical when I'm reading for a particular purpose. I want a result. I want to take what I've learned and apply it to my one and only life to make it better!
Because that's really what the Great Books all say. They all say: "You must change your life!" So here, below, are some suggestions for how you can apply the wisdom found in this breakdown to improve your actual life.
Please commit to taking massive action on this immediately! Acting on what you've learned here today will also help you solidify it in your long-term memory. So there's a double benefit! Let's begin...
#1: Ask a Practitioner to Help You Build a Map
When you're first starting out, one of your main priorities will be to get an overview of what's involved when it comes to learning and performing your chosen skill, and one of the best ways to do that is to ask someone who's already done it.
Usually, you'll find that people are more than happy to help you, and many of them will feel especially honored that you've taken an interest in something that clearly means so much to them. Most people are helpful and friendly, and so you should go ahead and ask people who are at least slightly ahead of you about what you should know.
What you're looking for is any information they can give you that's going to be helpful as you embark on the learning process yourself. Things like which mini-skills the main skill can be broken into; challenges that are looming ahead and mistakes that beginners usually make; how much time you should expect to have to devote to mastering each mini-skill, etc.
What's in store for you as you begin to take this skill or activity more seriously? What should you pay special attention to, and how can you benefit from the person's experience? Those are the kinds of things you're trying to find out in this preliminary step.
#2: Make Your Practice Habit Convenient to Do, and Inconvenient to Break
Most habits are easy to do, but they're also easy not to do, which is why you have to pay special attention to how you structure your habits.
If this new skill is important enough to you, you're naturally going to have more motivation to practice than you would otherwise, but motivation is so much less powerful than discipline. Motivation comes and goes with how you feel, but discipline - and an excellent support network - will always be there for you.
Having a mentor - someone you do not want to disappoint or let down - can work spectacularly well for getting you to stick to a practice schedule. There are also other "commitment devices" you can use, such as stating publicly on social media that you're going to do something, or pledging that you're going to donate money to a charity you find abhorrent for every time you skip practice.
Whatever you decide on, there should be real consequences for abandoning your plan, and it should be more inconvenient or painful for you to renege on your commitments than it would be for you to just do what you said you were going to do in the first place.
#3: Adjust Your Level of Difficulty
As you proceed along the path to mastery, you're going to notice that you do better in some areas having to do with your chosen skill than in others. Especially while working with a competent mentor, you're going to become painfully aware that you need more work here rather than there.
The right move at this juncture is to pay special attention to your weaknesses and do what you can to turn them into strengths. Whether that's shooting hundreds of free throws one after another in basketball, or working on your vibrato while playing the violin, you can structure your practice sessions in such a way that you work to overcome these limitations.
Then, once you've improved satisfactorily in that area, you can move on to your next weak spot and repeat the same process. Repeat for as long as you never want to remain average.
"The path to success is to take massive, determined action."
-Tony Robbins
About the Author:
Nick Velasquez is a passionate learner and devoted student of mastery. He’s the author of the popular blog UnlimitedMastery.com, where he writes about learning science, peak performance, creativity, and mastering skills. His writing has been featured in outlets such as TIME and Thought Catalogue. Nick speaks multiple languages and spends his time between Tokyo and Montréal.
Additional Resources:
This Book on Amazon:
If You Liked This Book:
Ok, that’s it for now…
More excellent book recommendations coming your way soon!
Again, the rest of the above breakdown is absolutely free, and you can find it right here.
What you see in this email is less than half of what you get at the Stairway to Wisdom. I left out most of the Book Notes, all the Questions to Stimulate Your Thinking, several of the Key Ideas, etc.
So there’s a lot more for you left to read if you enjoyed what you read in this email!
You can also apply to work with me directly on this page right here. I help clients gain wisdom and strength by using the knowledge found in the best books to assist people like you to get in peak physical shape, master your mind, make more money, and live a life you won’t regret.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Reading Life, and enjoy the rest of your week!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you apply the wisdom found in the greatest books ever written to your life:
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