There was a point when I had really begun to believe that all the amazing things had already been discovered,   that there was no more place for Thomas Alva Edisons in this world. A recent browse through a science magazine's archive of articles changed that - there were so many breakthroughs that occurred recently, it's possible that by the end of the current decade the face of the world would be completely different again. I say again because I managed to live through the technological revolution that started in the 1990's.

Perhaps it wasn't much of a revolution for most, but it was certainly an upheaval, those days: from having Internet service that you had to plug into your phone line and that gave that distinctive sound when connecting to 3G and WiFi technology. Cellphones, come to think of it - from blocky monsters that you could brain someone with to sleek multi-purpose PC's-in-a-pocket. I lived through the World Wide Web becoming a well-designed commercial sphere from its humble beginnings as a collection of static, painful-to-look-at pages.

There was a lot to create and find out then, and there is so much of the same going on today. Humanity is on a great adventure right now. Yet it seems like most of us are just along for the ride, and the reason I thought that there were no more Edisons was that they were too beyond me to be seen.

These people who have mastered their fields and open up new frontiers... how hard must they have worked for that privilege. How lucky they must have been to have things open up for them. How talented they must be, to recognize the opportunities come their way and make something out of what would ordinarily defeat others.

Mastery. It gives special powers over things pertaining to one's field, but is so difficult to achieve. I've read (and-re-read) Robert Greene's new book on the subject, hoping to find that moment of clarity by which one can establish structure to the chaos that is a life. I would recommend it to anyone, it is quite a good read; he has very reasonable things to say about developing oneself. But I do have misgivings: mastery is certainly something to aspire for, but I wonder if it is an automatic purveyor of fulfillment.

Reaching the pinnacle of your art requires so much sacrifice, and even then there is no guarantee that what you attained would affect anyone, much less last long enough to do so. Bruce Lee, for instance, died so young - what would his legacy have been if he did not have students like Taky Kimura or Dan Inosanto to continue his work? It's part of a trend in the martial arts - within any art's history you would see a handful of martial luminaries who are remembered and venerated by the later generations of students. No one seems to remember much about those who came between, those masters who bridged the gap and passed on their knowledge to the next generations. I suppose they would be of import in the sense that remembering their names helps establish the lineage of a teacher...

Even if you had the resources and luck to be the very best, there is still the question of whether it can support you, to pursue mastery of that area at all.

Mastery is a solo enterprise in the early phases of development, but it seems to me that upon reaching journeyman status the pursuit of mastery ceases to become an individual undertaking and more of a social one. A master's work must call to people, and people must in turn provide feedback to the master about his work. A master's work is never done, in that he must constantly strive for improvement; in this constant change it is still quite possible to deviate, no matter how old a hand one is. "Count no man happy until the end is known," and perhaps the same thing applies for mastery as it does happiness.