The Tim Ferriss Show #412: Josh Waitzkin on Beginner’s Mind, Self-Actualization, and Advice from Your Future Self (transcript)

Josh Waitzkin · 27 Feb 2020

Josh Waitzkin did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Learning is unobstructed self-expression, and friction obstructs it

Their wordsI think of learning as unobstructed self-expression. So friction is a form of obstruction.
Our reading
Being willing to look absurd can be an underused advantage when learning

Their wordsI mean, embracing looking absurd in certain moments is a very interesting hack to what others might not be taking advantage of in the learning process.
Our reading
Learning a principle can teach far more than learning a single technique

Their wordsSo I think to answer your question, conceptual learning has been—when you learn a technique, you’re learning one thing, when you’re learning a principle that embodies a technique, you might be learning a thousand things.
Our reading
Coming to an art late is a disadvantage but also frees a learner from insiders' assumptions

Their wordsAnd you’re right, I think it’s a disadvantage in a lot of ways that we’re coming in it so late. But it’s also a wonderful advantage because we’re not socialized by any of the assumptions that a lifetime surfer would make.
Our reading
Assumptions are worth examining, inverting and tearing apart

Their wordsIt’s very interesting to take our assumptions and examine them, flip them upside down, rip them apart.
Our reading
The best teacher to imagine is one's own self decades in the future, who knows one most deeply

Their wordsIf my goal is unobstructed self-expression or self-actualization within an art, then the person who’s teaching me should be the person who knows me most deeply. And that’s my person 20 years from now.
Our reading
People can learn to see the mental frames they look through

Their wordsWe can also cultivate the ability to look through the frame but also see the frame.
Our reading
Where accurate feedback is scarce, as in investing, progress depends on creating feedback loops

Their wordsI would argue that a lot of what defines the learning curve of someone in a field like investing where accurate feedback loops are few and far between, it’s how creative you are in manifesting them.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.