Prologue: The opening gambit -- A beginner's guide to being a beginner -- Learning how to learn: what infants can teach us about being good beginners -- Unlearning to sing -- I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing it anyway: the virtues of learning to fly with a group -- Surfing the u-shaped wave: the agony and the ecstasy of the advanced beginner -- How we learn to do things -- Meditation with benefits: how drawing changed the way I saw the world, and myself -- The apprentice, or, What I learned

"The best-selling author of Traffic and You May Also Like now gives us a thought-provoking, playful investigation into the transformative joys that come with starting something new, no matter your age"--