The Masters Play

Relax Your Shoulders and Other Unreasonable Advice

An illustrated gift book about the extra gear. Everyone at the top does the work. The masters add play on top of it, and that’s what makes them untouchable.

Hand-drawn ink doodle of Dalí's twin drawing the cover of The Masters Play, which shows him drawing it again

My name is John Second the First. I am not a productivity guru. I do not have a system. I do not take ice baths, mostly because I don’t do things I hate just because people say it’s good for me.

I wrote this book to inform you of one thing: your suffering is inefficient.

We have much to discuss. But first, please, for the love of God, relax your shoulders. You look like you are bracing for impact.

The pattern

  1. 1

    Leonardo da Vinci kept doodles and visual puns squeezed in beside anatomical drawings precise enough to teach from today.

  2. 2

    When Einstein got stuck on a problem, he put it down and picked up his violin. He called his method "combinatory play."

  3. 3

    Usain Bolt ran the fastest 100 meters in history with his cheeks bouncing while the lane next to him grimaced.

  4. 4

    When Lex Fridman asked programmer Peter Steinberger why his tiny project beat every well-funded competitor, he said: "Because they all take themselves too seriously. It's hard to compete against someone who's just there to have fun."

The book

13,500 words. Doodles and white space on every page. Built to be grabbed at an airport, read wheels-up to wheels-down, and kept on the shelf for years.

Steal Like an Artist for the format. Four Thousand Weeks for the philosophy. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck for the voice.

The authors

There are two of us. Nima Koucheki is a Persian-Swedish serial health entrepreneur in Amsterdam. John Second the First is the narrator, the part of the brain everyone suppressed at twelve. Nima worries this website should be more industry standard. John is making sure it isn’t.