An alternative to structured learning is to immerse yourself and experiment relentlessly. By trying everything and discarding what doesn't work, you build an intuitive, unorthodox mastery. This method prioritizes discovery and practical application over memorizing a pre-defined curriculum.

A mentor isn't someone who provides step-by-step instructions. The most powerful learning comes from finding someone you admire and closely observing their every move, how they speak, and how they behave in the face of obstacles, rather than seeking direct guidance.

Journey's 'imitate an expert' teaching method, where a practitioner narrates their internal state, was unexpectedly inspired by US military research into transferring tacit, non-verbal knowledge. This approach helps overcome the guesswork inherent in learning subjective skills like meditation.

Even trained experts can remain blind to their own destructive habits. The act of verbalizing a problem to another person is uniquely powerful, penetrating denial and creating a level of awareness that enables change, which is often impossible to achieve through internal reflection alone.

Jhanas, altered states learned through meditation, establish a powerful feedback loop between attention and emotion. This acts as a forcing function, helping you develop unprecedented fluency in managing your own nervous system, much like optimizing sleep or diet.

The next leap in meditation accessibility will be AI-powered, interactive sessions. An AI can conduct a 'dyadic guided meditation,' providing personalized, real-time feedback based on your experience. This creates a superhuman guide that dramatically accelerates the acquisition of internal skills.

Instead of just observing, Negreanu would fully immerse himself in the persona of successful competitors one by one. For a week, he would try to think, act, and play exactly like them, internalizing their best traits to create a "super player" composite of all their skills.

To become a great speaker, Anthony Trucks recorded a 90-second video every night for 3.5 years. This consistent, low-stakes practice built skill and confidence when no one was watching. Mastery comes not from occasional grand efforts but from relentless daily reps that forge a new identity.

Brad Jacobs uses a unique meditation technique where he expands and contracts his mental focus across vast scales of time and space, like an accordion. This practice helps him see business problems in their proper proportion, fostering humility, purpose, and wisdom by providing a grander context for daily challenges.