booknewb

TL;DR:  The key to Mastery and Peak Performance is to build Mental Representations. The key to building Mental Representations is Proper Training, Effort and Time. The best format for proper training: Deliberate Practice. Okay now one by one.

It is surprising that this was originally published in 1990. I had to double check the dates in the opening pages because the concept of Flow is still discussed actively today; often quoted in other psychology books, one example is in Grit by Angela Duckworth . It also pops up in other mediums like podcasts, topics for life coaches/gurus, and in self-help and personal development book shelves. The TL;DR version is.. It is essentially about happiness. The argument being that if we want to maximize happiness, we should maximize Flow experiences.  Now what is Flow? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines it as:

This was a hard read. For a man only starting to dabble in philosophy, this was a struggle. There's a certain kind of blaaggh from philosophy. I don't know what it is. It's almost like listening to a scholarly talk way beyond your comprehension; like if a preschooler sat down in a college trigonometry class. The TL;DR version is: a bunch of philosophers gathered round and discussed details and debated about Justice, Reality and the ideal State, the Republic.

Which is it? Trying to Enjoy Every Day.  that is. If you really think about, it is highly unlikely, impossible even, that you will enjoy each day this year. There are going to be days when you're going to be as sick as you can be, or as tired and stressed as you can possibly imagine. You're setting yourself up for disappointment if you think the year's going to be all warm and rosy.