The Art of Learning: Josh Waitzkin
Chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin, who is the subject of the great movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer, had a recent interview in USA Today about his new book. Josh is an International Master at chess and world champion martial artist, so he knows what he is talking about when it comes to learning. I found some of what he said could also apply to trading:
In America, people focus on the end result; they focus on the star. Michael Jordan: They don’t focus so much on his journey as his knocking in that last-second shot to win the game in the playoffs, as opposed to all the hundreds of shots he missed in the last second to lose the game for his team that ultimately made him the competitor he was.
Q: The highlight reel and not the whole game?
A. Exactly. Or even more than the whole game, how about all the missed shots in the lowlight reel? The lowlight reel is what makes the champion. That’s part of the reason that in the writing of the book, I was very true to the most painful moments of my life, because I think the long period of crisis I described toward the end of my chess life was defining to me.
