Books like Mastery

01

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool · Science

Peak is Anders Ericsson's definitive account of deliberate practice — the specific type of focused, feedback-driven training that, more than any other factor, determines how expert people become in demanding fields.

Shares mastery and learning with Mastery.

02

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Cal Newport · Self-help

So Good They Can't Ignore You is Newport's direct challenge to "follow your passion" as career advice.

Shares mastery and career development with Mastery.

03

The Talent Code

Daniel Coyle · Science

The Talent Code is Daniel Coyle's investigation into why certain places — a tennis academy in Russia, a soccer training ground in Brazil, a music conservatory in Texas — produce a disproportionate number of world-class performers.

A kindred self-help read.

04

Ultralearning

Scott Young · Self-help

Ultralearning is Scott Young's synthesis of principles drawn from his own extreme learning projects — completing MIT's four-year computer science curriculum in one year, learning four languages in a year, and other aggressive self-directed learning experiments — and from the academic research on skill acquisition and deliberate practice.

Shares mastery and learning with Mastery.

05

Deep Work

Cal Newport · Self-help

Deep Work is Cal Newport's case that the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task is becoming both rarer and more valuable, and that people who cultivate it will thrive while everyone else stays stuck in shallow busywork.

A kindred self-help read.

06

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

David Epstein · Science

Range is David Epstein's argument against the ten-thousand-hours gospel.

Shares career development and learning with Mastery.

07

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering

Richard Hamming · Science

Richard Hamming's book is based on a course he taught at the Naval Postgraduate School in the late 1980s, after a long career at Bell Labs where he made foundational contributions to information theory and computer science — the Hamming distance, Hamming codes, and various contributions to numerical methods all bear his name.

Shares career development and learning with Mastery.

08

The Art of Learning

Josh Waitzkin · Self-help

The Art of Learning is Josh Waitzkin's account of how he became a national chess champion as a child and later a world-champion martial artist, and what those two very different disciplines taught him about the structure of high performance.

Shares mastery and learning with Mastery.

09

A Mind for Numbers

Barbara Oakley · Self-help

A Mind for Numbers is Barbara Oakley's guide to learning hard subjects effectively, written primarily for students struggling with mathematics and science but drawing on cognitive science principles that apply to any demanding field.

Both dig into learning.

10

Big Magic

Elizabeth Gilbert · Self-help

Big Magic is Elizabeth Gilbert's manifesto for living a creative life — not as a professional artistic career but as an orientation toward existence.

Both dig into creativity.

11

Bird by Bird

Anne Lamott · Self-help

Bird by Bird is Anne Lamott's guide to writing and the creative life, grown from a course she taught at UC Davis and developed over years of writing novels, essays, and journalism.

Both dig into creativity.

12

Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within

Kenny Werner · Self-help

Effortless Mastery is jazz pianist Kenny Werner's account of what he calls "the space" — a state of relaxed, fearless attention that produces music of genuine quality, and that most musicians, including Werner himself for much of his early career, never reliably access.

Both dig into creativity.