Remember that great, tear-jerking movie from the early 90s, Searching for Bobby Fischer, about the chess prodigy? Well, little hero Josh Waitzkin was a real kid, and you can hear him here (audio) at age 11, talking with Robert Siegel about the difference between a nice opponent and a mean one. Now Josh is a real grown-up, and you can hear him on our show. These days it's Tai Chi Chuan, more than chess, that he's passionate about. Did you excel at something as a kid that didn't end up turning into your raison d'etre? (Everyone thought I'd inherit my father's height and be a basketball superstar, but when I stalled out at 5'9" and my skills on the court peaked in high school... on the JV team... well, that was that.) How did you re-channel that drive, focus, and passion?
Blog Of The Nation
Has your guest ever studied the philosophy of Bruce Lee. One of his many mantras on the Martial Arts was...Learn the Form; Perfect the Form; Break the Form. It is similar to some of the points your guest has made. Could he comment on this and Bruce Lee
Obviously, you become a radio producer at NPR. Obviously!
Thos
I'm really looking forward to checking this book out! I've always been one of the "smart kids", have always excelled in the honors classes, etc. But I've never really had to study or work hard. As soon as I find something that doesn't just "come to me", and I have to work at it, I have such a struggle! I get very frustrated and end up giving up. I've come to realize that I never had to learn how to study... never had to learn how to learn. The hardest subjects have always been easier when they are something that I have a passion for and that sounds much like what the secret is. Thanks for the great conversation!
Josh Waitzkin said he doesn't like to memorize something. That he likes to learn the patterns of something. This is the problem I experienced in teaching organic chemistry. In order to succeed in organic chemistry, students must learn the patterns of reactions (which are otherwise known as reaction mechanisms). When teaching organic chemistry, many students attempt to just memorize products of reactions rather than the logic of the reactions. As a result, a small change in the problem will prevents students from giving the correct answer because it doesn't look the same. With longer problems, the mechanisms totally baffle students. It is like trying to learn the Gettysburg Address in Chinese.
I ended up writing an organic chemistry workbook "The Language of Organic Chemistry" in which I have broken the individual steps down in a way to learn the patterns or logic of chemical reactions. In writing the book, I realized I had broken the teaching process down in exactly the same process as the French class I took in college at the University of Minnesota.
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