Can you learn to be a master at something by getting advice from a master? In some ways, that’s the promise of the increasingly popular Masterclass, where folks who are great at things share some of their pro tips. It’s like Cameo for A-listers. “Wayne Gretzky tells us that as a kid he’d watch games and diagram the puck’s movements on a sketch of a rink, which taught him to ‘skate to where the puck is gonna be.’ Likewise, Martin Scorsese says in his class that he used to storyboard scenes from movies he admired, such as the chariot race in ‘Ben-Hur.’ The idea that mastery can be achieved by attentive emulation of the masters is the site’s foundational promise. James Cameron, in his class, suggests that the path to glory consists of only one small step. ‘There’s a moment when you’re just a fan, and there’s a moment when you’re a filmmaker,’ he assures us. ‘All you have to do is pick up a camera and start shooting.'” The New Yorker’s Tad Friend: Can MasterClass Teach You Everything? I don’t really think MasterClass is about making you a master. It’s about entertaining content. I’ve watched every surf movie, yet my record ride was 2 seconds on nearly flat water. I watch Alex Honnold free-climb the sides of cliffs while repelling into a family-sized bowl of pasta. I’ve never ridden a Peloton, but I occasionally view the videos from my couch just to watch attractive people covered with beads of sweat exert themselves. Of course watching multiple sweaty people exert themselves in front of a camera has been the internet’s most popular masterclass since the beginning. And it sure didn’t take a masterclass to figure that out…