Even without comparing ourselves to the world's greatest, we set such high standards for ourselves that neither we nor anyone else could ever meet them—and nothing is more destructive to creativity than this.

The fine art of playing the edge in this case involves a willingness to take one step back for every two forward, sometimes vice versa. If there is any sure route to success and fulfillment in life, it is to be found in the longterm, essentially goalless process of mastery. In part 3 the author give us tools to use in this journey with many interesting examples and details. But before you can even consider playing this edge, there must be many years of instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality. Greene defines mastery as a heightened form of power and intelligence which any of us can attain, and which almost all of us experience from time to time under suitable conditions, such as the urgent need to solve a problem or to meet a deadline.Rigidity: The world has become increasingly complex in many ways, and whenever we humans face a situation that seems complicated our response is to resort to a kind of artificial simplicity, to create habits and routines that give us a sense of control. Suffer fools gladly: In dealing with fools you must adopt the following philosophy: they are simply a part of life, like rocks or furniture. Leonard's genuine commitment to Aikido and the years-long exposure to Zen philosophy and practice that afforded him make the first half of the book quite life-changing for the average Westerner.

In Mastery, which concerns the pursuit of virtuosity in one’s field (and, according to Greene, ends the journey that began with 48 Laws), Greene finally mentions the value of a “great contribution to society. To take the master's journey, you have to practice diligently, striving to hone your skills, to attain new levels of competence. Rarely is Greene blunt about the specific issues facing our age, but parsing his implications can be its own adventure—is he speaking of hipsters in describing the ironic attitude? This could be as simple as stopping work and going to sleep; or it could mean deciding to take a break, or to temporarily work on something else.First, it was meandering and long-winded trying to tie stories about evolution and human history to 'mastery'. Almost more than the how-to, I appreciated Leonard's near-poetic descriptions of how fulfilling mastery is. Complacency: Constantly remind yourself of how little you truly know, and of how mysterious the world remains.