High Level Goal

The Three Steps

I think there are some common traits to people that have reached that third level or mastery share.

Let's start by trying at a high level to define the different levels using the rule of three, as everyone else seems to.

We have the standard beginner, intermediate, advanced or the apprenticeship model of apprentice, journeyman, master. ¹

In Germany, there are still literal journeymen (Wandergeselle) that after their apprenticeship wander around working various jobs for several years before they can move on to becoming masters. It is called Wanderjahre (wandering years). ²

I will add my own version of this, I think these are the punk rock versions.

1. Learn the rules
2. Apply the rules
3. Break the rules

What is a rule?

Let's define what I mean by rule before we move on.

A "rule" is basically a wishful promise of an desired outcome. If you follow this then you will get some result. The rule is a chunk, at some point someone took a goal and came up with a "rule" to try and reach that goal.

There is nothing wrong with that but what happens is that "rule" or chunk of thinking is taken on by people with no insight into what prompted the original rule. You goals maybe different.

DRY (Quick Rant)

There is a programming principle that is often repeated (ironically) with little thought called the DRY or "Don't repeat yourself" principle. I think this is a good case study in rules.

The principle basically says that in programming don't have multiple versions of code that does the exact same thing. Straight forward and practical, makes sense.

It comes from a very good book by Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas called The Pragmatic Programmer. This book is one of my favorites and lead me down this path.

I have no complaint and in general follow this principle, but it shoulnd't be followed blindly which is what happens too often. It is just a promise of a result.

There are very valid situations when you shouldn't do this. There are times when a piece of code is critical and complex and trying to change to fit some new requirement could break things. In large complex systems this maybe a scary prospect especially if a failure in that code could have real world impact.

If your site goes down and you loose millions in revenue, telling your customers oh but we didn't repeat ourselves in the code is not a great answer. In a perfect world you would have all these tests to make sure it doesn't break things but we don't live in a perfect world.

We will talk about this more throughout but the my point is that a rule = a goal or promise and it may not match your current goal.

In the critical code path one of the stability of the code is a higher level goal, vs if we have some code that really shouldn't be duplicated.

That is the essence of picking which rules to to use and which ones to break. Do they match up with the goal you are trying to achieve, not what the original goal of the rule was.

Levels

Let's view the levels through a woodworker of various expetise tasked with building a set of shelves.

Level 1 Rule Learner:

The beginner is learning the tools and techniques to do this. They will have to research, and may use other people's patterns. The building is slow, full of setbacks, restarts, and mistakes.

The end product may get done, but is not great. The quality is low and it took quite a long time. The shelves are basic, probably prone to falling off the wall.

They are just trying to make their way through the problem, they don't enough knowledge to really dispute the rules or practices. Just getting the work done is a challenge enough, they are in no position to think about anything beyond the basic task.

Level 2 Rule applier:

With our level 2 woodwooker, everything is better, the quality, the time. The rule applier has some techniques and tools that they can work from.

An upgraded version of the beginner shelves. As people get to the top end of this level, there is competency. Nice made shelves delivered roughly on time and on budget, no real surprises. They don't have to look or research too many things. They know what they are going to do and execute.

But there is nothing new or special, you get what you asked for.

The cracks start to appear if you take away any part of their normal workflow. They can't handle new constraints or challenges unless someone shows them a path.

Once something new or different is needed, they will either hobble something together using the techniques they know, usually providing a sub-par solution, or get stuck and fail. Possibly, a combination of both.

In applying the “rules” they cannot find simple solutions and overcomplicate things. They can only combine rules that they know, if that combination doesn't get them there, then that is where the project ends.

They can't move past the current rules and techniques.

Level 3 Rule Breaker:

The rule breaker can do everything the level 2 applier can do but better and faster. They have more tools in thier tool bag in order to execute better but as we mentioned in craft they have also improved their meta process on how they work.

Let's say now, in our shelving scenario, there are some new constraints added. The room is old and oddly shaped, or there are extra constraints given by the situation.

A master can reevaluate the whole project from a solution standpoint. They can apply first principles thinking, or thinking from the most basic absolute constraints.

They have moved beyond the route “rules” and can solve problems by drawing on and synthesizing many techniques and tools, and even inventing ones when needed. They can move past the rules to create new "rules".

This is where the level 2 people become beginners again albeit usually without beginners mind. They don't have any tools or techniques to work with in this new environment. They learned all the basic patterns, but this situation is new and unique and there aren't any standard patterns.

This is where someone who has gotten to that third step can flourish.

Another aspect or an extension of this is seeing new possibilities. Shelves are great, but what if with time you want to change them in various ways? Our third step person could say, what about a shelving system? You can move around the shelves to different positions.

They have the ability and skills to see that it is a possibility or invent ways to make it work. The master level allows you to move beyond what is there to start to make the world of that craft what you want it to be.

At this level a person can separate the tools from the solution and see them as separate things.

This level more things are taken into consideration. Not just how to build the shelves but how will the be used. If the whole space of possibilities is our domain then the level 3 person has captured more of the domain then the other levels.

A master chef is not thrown by new ingredients or a missing one but can make something amazing out of nothing. They understand that the ingredient is just one part and plays a role and is not the end goal in itself but a replaceable tool. They are stepping into design thinking.

When you haven't mastered something you making just what you can make and hope that it is good enough. When you have mastered something then you skill can match up with your desire and goal and your vision can grow.

The video below that I think shows many of the traits of mastery. To be able to have a goal that fulfills your needs and not be limited by what you can make.

Everyone is working in the system, instead of seeing that there is ways to break from of it and do things a new.

There is a domain of possibility and as you advance you can capture more of it.

The goal

Another way of putting this is that the goals of the master or aspiring one is to absorb what the domain is and what it could be.

Most people's goal is to understand the tools and techniques well enough so they can do x. That is it.

It is easier to "master" the known. A technique or a tool, there is very little doubt or uncertainty in that.

I am starting to see that this path is in many ways more about a mindset. The desire to move past the what of a domain, but to understand the why of the domain and to explore its full potential.

At a high level:

Can you work with intention?

You have a vision or a desire that you can articulate and execute on.

Are you consistent?

It is not enough to stumble on to something every once in a while. The true test is can you do this over and over again on demand.

Are you original or creative?

Are you bringing your own style or something new to the table? Have you made it your own?

More Concrete

There are many ways to show mastery, so this is not exhaustive. We will flush more of these throughout the book but let's start to define some of these traits clearer.

Ability to deliver high quality work

High-quality work can be subjective, and we will dive into how to define that for yourself in later chapters.

For now let's say the work is considered by peers or consumers to be at a level beyond the norm.

Ability to create something in a timely manner.

This can vary from craft to craft. For some fields, time is less important or more tolerated. If it takes a top artist years to put something new out, but the work is outstanding, then that is the price that we are willing to pay.

For many professions, though, you need to be able to deliver on time and be able to communicate and commit to those dates.

This inability highlights the difference in skill levels. It is not about the time, but usually about the haphazardness in which people work.

Given a task, they lack the ability to break down the problem and have a clear, focused path to solving it. They don't have the mental models or capability to hold the problem in their head.

They are not executing on a vision but stumbling towards a hopeful solution, and so they cannot deliver consistently as well as estimate how long the work will take.

A master can create something better in a fraction of the time often by doing less in a more focused way. Also they will have a clearer estimate because they have a plan from the start.

Ability to capture more of your domain in your work

As you level up and chunk more of your craft, it means you can pay attention to additional aspects of the space or domain.

You can then bring that into your process and decision-making.

Think of going from cooking at home, to cooking in a restaurant, to catering an event for 200 people. At each stage, there is more domain space and more to capture.

Cooking at home you have a small domain, but a restaurant is on a different level. How do you staff, how do you buy food, how do you prep? How do you organize so that food goes out on time?

At Michelin restaurants, it is not just the excellence of the meal, but it needs to taste exactly the same on subsequent visits. How do you do that?

The goal is to see and understand those aspects and address them as a part of your solution.

When you can capture all the aspects of your domain, that is mastery.

Ability to function with new constraints.

We will elaborate on challenges and constraints throughout the book, but being able to deal with new constraints is a sign of mastery.

Most people learn a way to work with things in a certain way, but if they can't use their normal methods, they struggle or fail.

The goal of mastery is to have control over an area, if changing conditions makes what you do fall apart, then you have no control.

Ability to see core abstractions

There is this brilliant book called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat — by Samin Nosrat that I think captures this aspect.

What is cooking about? What are the core abstractions that once you understand them you can leverage them to really grasp your craft or capture more of the domain.

If you can see how an ingredient acts in a dish, then you understand the best way to use it or replace it. If not, you are stuck trying every combination.

Abstractions can be powerful tools, and by finding them you can unlock that power. If you are not seeing the abstractions, then every aspect is disconnected and has to be handled on its own.

The human brain is limited, so the goal is find large chunks that we can use.

Ability to work with economy of motion

This is more apparent in sports, or physical-based skills. You can see the way masters do things.

Watch a professional chef cook, there is no wasted motion. Every wasted motion has been stripped by time through repeated motion. There is intention in every movement.

This can be seen in the non-physical as well. The ability to strip away the needless steps and just work on the problem at hand.

Here is an example from Top Chef of head judge getting in the kitchen and doing a "quick fire" that the contestants normally do but usually with 30 minutes on the clock.

Ability to push

This is in the mindset category, but I constantly see this. This ability to keep going and to push for a solution or to work on something even after failure is a key ability. The ability to get unstuck, to keep making progress.

Or to not accept a flawed solution, to keep pushing until you find the best one.

It is the key ability needed to reach a level of mastery and to maintain it.

Ability to solve higher level problems.

Do things no one has done before. To find a path even though the path is not clear.

Ability to see higher level problems and solve those.

To see the pattern in the issues and address that commonality. In programming, there is something called the DRY (Don't repeat yourself) principle.

The idea is to not repeat the same code over and over again, to find a way to combine the code so it handles all the various requirements.

That is ok, but I think real leverage comes from what I call Macro-DRY. Seeing the larger patterns and seeing them as one problem.

This is part capture more of your domain, part abstraction. Will talk about this more in the design section, but I think the iPod was successful because it solved a higher problem.

Everyone was trying to figure out how to build a device that can hold ten thousand songs. The genius of Apple was realizing that is not the real issue. The number of songs was a solved problem at that point with everyone having access to the same small harddrives.

The real difficulty is how do you interact with a device that has ten thousand things on it? The scroll wheel was that solution, that was the higher level problem that not only solved the scrolling through ten thousand things but also became the standard interface, making it easy to add new UI elements.

Ability to create simple solutions to complex problems.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Someone ( Leonardo da Vinci ? )

Ability to simplify is a true trait of mastery. Mastery makes complex things look simple, but they are not.

We will talk more about this in the design section, but simple is not easy. Simple requires real skill and the ability to synthesize things in new ways in order to get to the essence of something.

It iPod scroll wheel was not easy to make, but was an simple solution to a complex UI problem.

The inability for people to simplify is one of the biggest gaps to mastery.

Ability to break the "Rules"

There are a ton of things that we do not because they have been reasoned out, but because it was how things were done.

The problem with “rules” is they are supposed to help us get to a goal. But if they don't, they need to be discarded. Oftentimes they are used as a shortcut for thinking and looking at things anew.

This constantly happens in programming. Someone will “design” something or establish a pattern, and for some reason this becomes gospel.

The thread throughout many of these aspects is substituting something easy for something hard. It is easy to stick to the rules.

Ability to be intentional

Related to breaking the rules, is having intentionality with what you are doing and in how you are doing it.

You know what you want and the manner to achieve it.

Can you answer what your goal is and why you are doing the things you are doing to achieve it?

Ability to see the trade offs

Everything is trade-offs, but most people are not aware of the trade offs they are making when making decisions.

Ability to bend your domain to your will

To not accept the status quo and see what is really possible.

Happiness of excellence - The by product of mastery

In the book Resilience, Eric Greitens, talks about three types of happiness, one of which he calls the Happiness of excellence.

“Pushing ourselves to grow, to get better, to dive deeper is at the heart of happiness.”

“This is the happiness that goes hand in hand with excellence, with pursuing a worthy goal, with growing mastery.”

To me, working towards mastering my chosen craft has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

To feel like you are contributing something, and it is uniquely yours. That it is using all of yourself to create something, and that expression can only come after years of hard work honing your skills.

In Japanese Calligraphy, there is a drawing called an Ensō ring.

There are many meanings, but the one that I heard that stuck with me was this idea, that you train for a long time and after many years you just draw a circle and let it be whatever it is.

It is not the drawing of a beginner, but from someone who is highly skilled, but any “imperfections” are not imperfections but reflect the unique character and perspective that the person brings with them.

The beauty of mastering your craft is that you get to bring a totally unique view to your craft that no one else will ever exactly have.

References