The Real Work

On the Mystery of Mastery

By: Adam Gopnik

Narrated by: Adam Gopnik

Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Longtime New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik investigates a foundational human question: How do we learn―and master―a new skill

For decades, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France, and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a fundamental matter: How did the people he was writing about learn their outlandish skill, whether it was drawing a nude or baking a sourdough loaf? In The Real Work―the term magicians use for the accumulated craft that makes for a great trick―Gopnik apprentices himself to an artist, a dancer, a boxer, and even a driving instructor (from the DMV), among others, trying his late-middle-age hand at things he assumed were beyond him. He finds that mastering a skill is a process of methodically breaking down and building up, piece by piece―and that true mastery, in any field, requires mastering other people’s minds. Read by the author, The Real Work is exuberant and profound, and is ultimately about why we relentlessly seek to better ourselves in the first place.

©2023 Adam Gopnik (P)2023 Pushkin Industries

Critic reviews

“There is no writer more qualified to write about the mystery of mastery than Adam Gopnik, the most masterful of essayists. The Real Work is peak Gopnik.” ―Malcolm Gladwell

“Gopnik is a writer with a keen, warm eye and a generous heart.” ―Financial Times

"Intellectually and viscerally thrilling."―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Adam Gopnik's thoughts mastering things

Gopnick is one of today's more entertaining writers and I enjoyed this book even though some of its subject matter didn't interest me (magic techniques and boxing, to name two). But there is something for everyone here, and much to be learned, whether it is mastered or not.

Reading this was a mystery

Gopnik explores various fields—magic, driving, boxing—in an attempt to share the “mystery of mastery.” He admits he is not a master of these things but did a poor job explaining to the reader (to me at least) what the mysteries were. If he was going to interview masters, especially when discussing driving or boxing, perhaps he should have interviewed an F1 or NASCAR champion or a world title holder or coach, not an NYC driving instructor or an amateur kick boxing/Muay Thai winner. Lots of waxing poetics, not much substance.

Surprisingly Good

I almost didn’t buy this audiobook because of the previous reviews. I’m glad that I relied on my previous enjoyment of books and articles by the author. I was not only entertained, but inspired and motivated to try a new skill myself.

Brilliant

He builds and then uses an unexpected foundation; but with this unusual approach, he is able to expand it into other areas that lead to real depth. I was truly entranced and moved by this.

Huh?

I couldn't hang on for more than two hours. I got lost in the literary disquisition of magicians and magic tricks, the history of magicians and magic tricks, famous magicians… I was interested in what he had to say about drawing, which didn't take as long as the slog through magic seemed to do and it turns out, I already know the secret to master drawing, having been drawing for sixty years, and I'll add something he perhaps didn't stick with it long enough to learn or impart: that quest just doesn't end.