Le Journal

This article is an early look at our upcoming special issue on Mastery. Check back in on January 28 to catch the full issue. After years of studies and six months in New York, I was convinced I’d mastered English. I was cracking jokes with American friends, binge-watching shows without subtitles, and even thinking in English half the time. Then I moved to London for my first job at Google, and suddenly, I felt like I’d never truly master the language. Colleagues used phrases I’d never heard. Cultural references flew over my head. I found myself nodding along in meetings, pretending to understand jokes that left me completely lost. It felt terrible. I was encountering the growing pains inherent to mastery, but everything I’d been told about getting good at something had set me up to misinterpret this growth as failure. Our cultural narrative about mastery is not just incomplete. It’s actively misleading, and we’ve mythologized mastery in ways that make people quit right when they might be breaking into new territories. The five lies we tell ourselves about mastery The problem starts with how we think about mastery itself. We carry a set of deeply ingrained assumptions about how it works — assumptions that feel obvious and true, but that are actually counterproductive. Here are the most damaging ones: Misconception #1: Mastery is a destination. We imagine crossing a finish line where we’ll finally “arrive” as experts. Watch any master craftsperson, though, and you’ll see someone still questioning their approach, still discovering new techniques, still experimenting and pushing into uncharted territory. Misconception #2: Improvement is linear. We expect steady, measurable progress: practice more, get better, repeat. Reality looks more like a stock chart: long plateaus punctuated by sudden jumps, with occasional dips when you’re integrating something new. Misconception #3: Mastery requires extreme intensity. Research shows that sustainable, consistent practice beats sporadic bursts of intensity. Someone who practices 30 minutes daily for a year will typically outpace someone who practices 3 hours once a week. Misconception #4: Technique is everything. We obsess over the mechanics: the “right” way to hold the instrument, the perfect form, the exact method. But while technique matters enormously, so do mindset, feedback loops, rest, and environmental support. Misconception #5: Mastery feels easy once achieved. This is perhaps the most dangerous myth of all. Even masters experience frustration and have to revisit fundamentals, but they’ve learned to find satisfaction in the process itself, not just the outcomes. So, if all our assumptions about mastery are wrong, what actually works? The answer lies in how our brains learn and adapt. George Wylesol Achieving mastery through experimentation Our brains adapt most rapidly when faced with novel challenges, not repetitive drilling. Perhaps most importantly, studies on what researchers call “desirable difficulty” show that struggle isn’t a sign that you’re failing. It’s a sign that your brain is forming new neural pathways. That’s why experts don’t just repeat what they know — they constantly experiment at the edge of their abilities. Instead of grinding through repetition, they treat every practice session like a mini-laboratory. Here’s what that looks like: Run tiny experiments. Let go of the idea of mastery as a destination. Instead, experiment with different approaches. A programmer might experiment for a few days with coding without looking at Stack Overflow or ChatGPT. A musician might practice scales for 10 minutes before touching any songs for two weeks. These tiny experiments let you test the boundaries of your knowledge while embracing the in-betweens. Design feedback loops. Create systems that help you notice what’s working. You might track which new words you actually use in conversation, photograph your work at different stages to see patterns in your process, or ask for…

We’re into the back half of January, and (regular season) conference title races are beginning to take shape across college basketball. This week saw plenty of movement in the AP Top 25 polls, resulting from multiple upsets and ranked matchups on both the men’s and women’s side. Let’s take a look at where things stand now. Men’s Basketball AP Top 25 1. Arizona (61 first place votes) 2. UConn 3. Michigan 4. Purdue 5. Duke 6. Houston 7. Nebraska 8. Gonzaga 9. Iowa State 10. Michigan State 11. Illinois 12. Texas Tech 13. BYU 14. Virginia 15. Vanderbilt 16. Florida 17. Alabama 18. Clemson 19. Kansas 20. Arkansas 21. Georgia 22. North Carolina 23. Louisville 24. St. Louis 25. Miami (OH) Where is UNC? The Tar Heels had the biggest drop in this week’s poll, falling eight spots to #22 after losing back-to-back games at Stanford and Cal. Personally, I’m about 50/50 on whether they should be ranked at all, but we’ll likely get a definitive answer to that this week when they host Notre Dame (Wednesday) and travel to #14 Virginia (Saturday).  Biggest Winners Kansas reentered the poll at #19 after decisive home wins over then-#2 Iowa State and Baylor, St. Louis entered the poll for the first time since the 2020-21 season at #24 after improving to 17-1, and Miami (OH) earned its first ranking in 27 seasons at #25 after moving to 19-0. Within the poll, Clemson moved up four spots to #18 after home wins over Boston College and Miami (FL).  Biggest Losers Iowa State had the biggest fall after UNC, dropping seven spots to #9 after losing at Kansas and Cincinnati. Utah State went from #23 to unofficial #31 after losing at Grand Canyon, Tennessee went from #24 to unofficial #30 after a home loss to Kentucky, and Seton Hall went from #25 to receiving zero votes after home losses to then-#3 UConn and Butler.   Conference Breakdown Big 12: 6 Big Ten: 5 SEC: 5 ACC: 5 Big East: 1 WCC: 1 A-10: 1 MAC: 1 Marquee Matchups This Week #15 Vanderbilt (16-2) @ #20 Arkansas (13-5) – Tonight at 9:00 PM ET on ESPN #22 North Carolina (14-4) @ #14 Virginia (16-2) – Saturday at 2:00 PM ET on ESPN #11 Illinois (15-3) @ #4 Purdue (17-1) – Saturday at 3:00 PM ET on FOX #6 Houston (17-1) @ #12 Texas Tech (14-4) – Saturday at 6:30 PM ET on ESPN #23 Louisville (13-5) @ #5 Duke (17-1) – Monday at 7:00 PM ET on ESPN #1 Arizona (18-0) @ #13 BYU (16-2) – Monday at 9:00 PM ET on ESPN Women’s Basketball AP Top 25 UConn (30 first place votes) South Carolina UCLA Texas Vanderbilt LSU Michigan Louisville TCU Iowa Kentucky Ohio State Michigan State Baylor Maryland Oklahoma Tennessee Ole Miss Texas Tech Princeton Duke West Virginia Alabama Nebraska Washington Where is UNC? Still unranked, but up from unofficial #28 to unofficial #27 after beating Miami (FL) at home and Florida State on the road. The Tar Heels travel to face Georgia Tech on Thursday and host Syracuse on Sunday. If they win both of those games, there’s a decent chance they’ll find themselves back in the Top 25.  Biggest Winners Duke reentered the rankings at #21 after stretching its winning streak to 10 games, West Virginia reentered at #22 after a one-point home loss to then-#10 TCU and a road win at Cincinnati, and Washington reentered at #25 after beating Indiana on the road and Minnesota at home. Within the poll, Baylor moved up four spots to #14 after double-digit wins at Utah and BYU.  Biggest Losers Iowa State went from #19 to unofficial #31 after losing at Colorado and Oklahoma State, Notre Dame went from #23 to unofficial #28 after a home loss to then-#9 Louisville, and Illinois went from #25 to unofficial #26 after losing at then-#8 Michigan. Within the Top 25, Kentucky slid four spots to #11 after losing at Mississippi State.  Conference Breakdown SEC: 9 Big Ten: 7 Big 12: 5 ACC: 2 Big East: 1 Ivy League: 1 Marquee Matchups This Week #10 Iowa (16-2) @ #15 Maryland (17-3) – Thursday at 6:00 PM ET on NBC #11 Kentucky (17-3) @ #17…

Cisco today announced a multi-year partnership with Georgetown University to modernize the campus network, delivering advanced connectivity and new digital experiences. More RSS Feeds: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/rss-feeds.html

Cisco is helping build trust in AI agent ecosystems by ensuring reliability, transparency, and ethical use as AI becomes part of daily interactions.More RSS Feeds: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/rss-feeds.html