> Thinking about this question, I wrote down a list of twenty names—von Neumann, Tolstoy, Curie, Pascal, etc
So the author advocates that we learn from geniuses how to master something? I'm not sure if this premise is true to start with. Von Neumann could solve complex PDE systems in his mind in minutes if not seconds, can we no matter how hard we try? Poincare worked only four hours day, can we? Euler wrote faster than people could digest his writings, can we? Galois invented group theory when he was 19, yet how many people could really understand the simplest college-level abstract algebra after they graduate from a STEM field? Feynman (or Einstein?) self taught himself calculus by 12 or 14, yet how many students struggled with the concept of variables when they were at the same age no matter how hard they and their teachers tried? Those are extraordinary people with extraordinary capabilities. I'm not sure how much we can learn from them to master something.
Rather, I would learn from ordinary people who struggle from time to time yet somehow manage to master something.