Mastery
Take the pyramid people spend whole decades inside — Mastery.
When you enter any field, you’re met with a hierarchy of skills and experience. A pyramid you have to climb. The Chinese have a word for the climb: kung fu — any skill earned through time and effort, not just fighting. Twenty hours of honest practice already puts you above average. Twenty minutes a day, and in a season you pass most people who “always wanted to try”.
At the base, you start with “Proving to Others” — trying to impress. Moving up, you reach “Proving to Yourself.” But true mastery comes when you realize there’s nothing left to prove.
At that point, you’re no longer inside the pyramid. You’re free. Some people never get there, stuck on various levels, feeling they fall short. See what you really are, and you will be free.
And success isn’t zeros in your account — it’s a state of joy. Comfort. If someone thinks I shouldn’t live this way, that’s their problem.
The Reading List
The First 20 Hours
How to Learn Anything... Fast
Mastery takes ten thousand hours — but “better than most” takes about twenty. Take the skill apart, sit through the ugly first hours on purpose, and the wall between you and any new thing turns out to be a door.
But the pyramids don’t end there.