Mastery: How Learning Transforms Our Brains, Minds, and Bodies

To the outsider, an expert seems as if they are doing everything effortlessly. A master chess player, an expert golfer, and a prolific writer seem to be able to quickly home in on what needs to be done and execute flawlessly over and over again. How do we master new skills? How do our brains and bodies transform performance from novice to expert? In Mastery, Arturo E. Hernandez shows that new skills are not built but rather bloom from the combination and recombination of small parts that come to represent a new whole.

The process by which smaller things are blended over and over again is one that is not just restricted to high-level experts. Uniting the latest research findings from a cross section of disciplines and case studies with compelling storytelling, Mastery shows readers how the blooming of abilities can work in their favor and lead them to achieve much more than they thought was possible. Whether mastering a new language, learning to play a musical instrument, improving your tennis serve, or sharpening your memory, Hernandez teaches readers how to take advantage of our adaptability and open our minds to their fullest potential. Rather than hyperfocus and overspecialization, moving our focus from rigid perfection to a form of flexible adaptation can lead to unexpected improvement. This approach to skill sheds light on how to better harness our talents so that we can accomplish things that are seemingly out of reach.

For anyone looking to learn a new skill, teach someone else to do the same, or to better understand how our brains evolve and excel, this fascinating tour of cognition will reveal the path to surprising potential.

Arturo E. Hernandez, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at the University of Houston specializing in the brain bases of bilingualism. He is the winner of the Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation in Germany and a Fulbright Global Scholar award, among other awards. He is the author of The Bilingual Brain and has written more than 80 journal articles. As a child, Hernandez was exposed to four languages and became proficient in two of them, English and Spanish. He learned Portuguese as a third language in early adulthood and German in his thirties. He is also an avid tennis player, having competed in tournaments himself and spent time coaching his children.