Barnes & NobleMastery by Robert Greene

Inspirational but lacking in rigor

What does it take to rise to the top of one’s profession or any other domain in life? Through artful storytelling of historical and contemporary figures, Greene offers us a plethora of examples to follow. He tries to tie each case to principles of how the individual mastered her/his own environment. In so doing, he offers us a self-driven manual for how to command a sector in life. Greene’s contemporary exemplars include figures from many domains, including piloting, research, and linguistics. Ancient figures include geniuses that you learned about in school. All in all, a variety of personality and professional types are represented, including both men and women, people with disabilities, and the formally educated as well as the self-educated. The author is clearly adept at spinning a good story. His storylines stick to readers’ ears and hearts. I listened to this book as an audiobook while I performed other tasks with my hands; each chapter drew my attention in, and time passed quickly. I have not read Greene’s other works for comparison, but his skill in the narrative arts is evident. What most lacked was intellectual rigor. Yes, he brought forth diverse inspirational examples that illustrated key concepts related to mastery, but I could not deduce if Greene’s theorizing was ever tested via a scientific method. I hoped to see studies cited or some sort of quantitative analysis to back up his far-reaching claims of long-standing principles. What shows me that his contentions are true besides anecdotal evidence? That said, this book does offer much fodder to activate readers’ creative juices. Inspiration needs to be followed by perspiration, no? That means that I have a lot of work to do because Greene began a process of trying to learn about the finer details along life’s paths. He showed how these figures, through their own perspiration, managed to overcome situations to help others and to lead. If one function of books is to push us on to increasing excellence, then this book succeeds in spades.