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The Real Work

On the Mystery of Mastery

Audiobook
6 of 10 copies available
6 of 10 copies available

Longtime New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik investigates a foundational human question: How do we learn―and master―a new skill?


For decades, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France, and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a fundamental matter: How did the people he was writing about learn their outlandish skill, whether it was drawing a nude or baking a sourdough loaf? In The Real Work―his title the term magicians use for the accumulated craft that makes for a great trick―Gopnik apprentices himself to an artist, a dancer, a boxer, and even a driving instructor (from the DMV), among others, trying his late-middle-age hand at things he assumed were beyond him. He finds that mastering a skill is a process of methodically breaking down and building up, piece by piece―and that true mastery, in any field, requires mastering other people's minds. Read by the author, The Real Work is exuberant and profound, and is ultimately about why we relentlessly seek to better ourselves in the first place.

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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Adam Gopnik's voice has entertaining tonal variety and natural enthusiasm--just what this somewhat esoteric book needs to hold listeners' attention as he unfolds his discoveries about how we learn various occupations from others. For years he's been a worldly critic for THE NEW YORKER, bringing fresh perspectives to art, food, culture, and anything else that captures his attention. In this audiobook, he studies how people in diverse occupations pass on their knowledge to others. He often gains insights by becoming a student himself, learning from such professionals as a boxer, a dancer, a magician, and a driving instructor. He organizes his insights into seven "mysteries of mastery" and describes his experiences and conclusions with lively writing. He says mastery is less about "how to" than it is about absorbing the attitudes, culture, and identity of masters in any field. T.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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