Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant

Mastery as an attitude rather than a destination, a process of personal creativity we can incorporate into our ordinary everyday lives.

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Ordinary Mastery: What is Ordinary Mastery? https://t.co/uwE01A39xX

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

My detailed notes and highlights of the 1992 book 'Mastery', by George Leonard: https://t.co/u0mtqeIvLr

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Mastery is not relentlessly pushing hard, with grit and drive, but humbly surrendering to the process whilst maintaining a sense of awe or reverence for the process.

"Willfulness must give way to willingness and surrender. Mastery must yield to mystery." - Gerald May

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

My most recent Substack post looks at Cognitive Load Theory and should resonate well with software engineers who are often pushed to the limits of their cognitive capabilities.

https://t.co/w1W3jihkxh

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Mastery is a willingness to be an eternal student. Humbly adopting a beginner’s mind, even if you’re already considered an ‘expert’, is the character of mastery.

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Without struggle, there is no mastery. But there is also no story.

Our lives and even our sense of identity are composed of our stories - and the best stories come from struggle.

https://t.co/Jtx2g1SUTs

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Interesting how it is easier to see the potential in others than it is to see it in yourself.

I wonder if every Master’s journey can be traced back to the moment another person recognised their potential, or whether it all depends upon us recognising our own potential?

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

@JamesClear My main project, sadly, is finding a day job after a recent redundancy. Oh, how I would so love to eliminate it entirely and work solely on my self-determined projects...

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Exploring the differences between aspiration and ambition and musing on finding our calling in life in my latest substack article:

https://t.co/aq5utFTDPt

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

@bryla_piotr @lasek_tom Looking great...

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Can humility be learnt and mastered as a skill or is it something we are born with?

I think the guitar is a great teacher of humility.

Here I'm drawing on some thoughts after a recent gig I attended by the rather anassuming and humble @MikeDawesMusic

https://t.co/LdZxN6TIVr

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

@RealDDP Having a philosophy to leverage adversity - bend with the wind: https://t.co/ZoXDEG3LQz

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

A deep dive into that thing we think we know the best - our self, or our ego.

What is the ego?
Why do we have an ego?
How can our ego get in our way?

Some initial thoughts on the ego before delving into the idea of egolessness in a later article.

https://t.co/GXWlsPIVkF

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

The nostalgia of this just brought tears to my eyes. David Byrne's mastery of weaving a story spanning 4 decades...

[A24 @A24]

If the suit still fits… This year, we’re bringing Jonathan Demme’s groundbreaking 1984 Talking Heads concert film STOP MAKING SENSE (newly remastered in 4K!) back to theaters worldwide. #StopMakingSense2023

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

@bryla_piotr Pomodoro is good for when you have clarity on what needs to get done, but sometimes a different kind of thinking is needed to explore a problem more deeply, & best to take yourself away, getting out for a run and deliberately creating space for the answers to emerge on their own.

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

@bryla_piotr Have you tried the Google knowledge graph? https://t.co/1mj3L9ssO9

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Adversity is the great master teacher and the master comes wearing the cloak of suffering. Suffering is an aversion to what is. The greater the aversion, the greater the suffering. What’s pain for one is pleasure for another.

Source: https://t.co/MSHcnufIk0

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

...because you will have in you a kind of syndrome whereby happiness consists in promises” From a talk by Alan Watts, Man is a Hoax

https://t.co/tvXsVcZaU4

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

“Making plans for the future is of use only to people who are capable of living completely in the present. Because when you make plans for the future and they mature, if you can’t live in the present you are not able to enjoy the future for which you have planned...

[continued]

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

A Philosophy for Leveraging Adversity.

Hopefully useful to anyone experiencing #redundancy

https://t.co/ZoXDEG3LQz

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

@bryla_piotr @nntaleb Congratulations. You are successful.

[Ordinary Mastery | John Durrant @OrdinaryMastery]

Looking back at your life and asking yourself 'have you disappointed the person you were at 18?', let him or her be the judge of your success, not your reputation, wealth or other social status measures.

If you don't feel ashamed, you're successful.

Good advice via @nntaleb