Peak — Anders Ericsson
“We call ourselves “knowing man” because we see ourselves as distinguished from our ancestors by our vast amount of knowledge. But perhaps a better way to see ourselves would be as Homo exercens, or “practicing man,” the species that takes control of its life through practice and makes of itself what it will.”
Start — 12/30/16 Finish — 1/2/17
Thoughts:
Peak takes a scientific look at how experts get so good at what they do, and along the way it does a seriously good job of debunking many common misconceptions about both innate talent and skill-building. I guess part of me has always inherently believed that some people did simply have more “raw talent” or a knack for picking up certain skills — a knack that went beyond just physical differences that gave them an edge. After reading Anders Ericsson’s work, it seems that most discrepancies in skill really can all be explained by the degree to which each individual has practiced a skill and how effectively they practiced. Ericsson presents numerous studies to the reader which suggest even differences in IQ, while creating initial discrepancies in how quickly chess players pick up the game, don’t really matter in the long-run as these players become experts.
Ericsson also sort of eviscerates the popularized “10,000 hour rule,” which came from one of his own studies looking at the number of hours a group of high-class violin students played before they were twenty years old. He explains this is really just an arbitrary number that was picked by Gladwell because it was round and easy to remember — it has no real significance in itself. Ericsson could have easily looked at the average number these best students played before they were twenty-one, which would have given a different average. Beyond that, one of the main points of the book is that just practicing something for an insane number of hours won’t make you world-class in anything. Your practice must be deliberate, and Ericsson is very clear about what that actually entails. He gives the reader fairly concrete instruction on the characteristics of practice that will be most effective over time — instructions that are readily applicable.
Moreover, his argument made me feel somewhat inspired. Potential is not something that is set when we are born, but rather something we cultivate through intense practice. We are not born “creatives” or “mathematicians” or “athletes,” we are whatever we decide to mold ourselves into. It has made me rethink how I view my own abilities, and the methodology behind my own attempts to improve certain skills. He also includes arguments on how these ideas should be applied to our education system (and included an experiment to back up his claims, of course), all of which I found very interesting.
It seems we spend a lot of time doing things in hope of getting better, but never really look critically at what it takes to get better in the most effective way possible. If we care about something enough to put hours of time into it every week, shouldn’t we care just as much about how exactly we learn and practice? This book is really everything you could want in this type of science/non-fiction genre: claims backed up by studies and examples, clear and concise writing, readily applicable instructions for revamping your own practice, and not too much fluff between it all. I think The Talent Code and Smarter, Faster, Better would be good complements to this. Overall, a fantastic read.
Score: 10/10
Directives:
· Hours and hours of practice will not necessarily yield desired improvements in your skill. Many hours are needed to become an expert at something, but it is only through deliberate practice that we can get to that level.
· Deliberate practice involves well-defined and specific goals, complete focus, immediate feedback, a constant push outside of your comfort zone, and a production/dependence upon mental representations.
· What mainly sets experts apart from the rest is the quality and quantity of their mental representations — ideas, patterns, or mental structures you use to process a lot of information in a short amount of time. Deliberate practice seeks to strengthen these representations over time.
· Your brain and body are fully adaptable. While there are some skills that should be practiced during youth to have positive and long-lasting effects on brain development (particularly instruments), for the most part anyone can achieve expertise through methodically planned deliberate practice.
· Innate talent is really a myth. There is no refined skill without grueling hours of practice. Don’t let ideas like “I’m not creative” or “I’m not cut out for ____” — these merely push you towards self-fulfilling prophecies.
Notes:
· Purposeful Practice
o Most people start off with a general idea of what they want to do, get some instruction from a teacher or website, practice until they reach an acceptable level, and then let the skill become automatic
§ Generally, once a person reaches an acceptable level of performance, the additional years of practice don’t lead to actual improvement
§ Sometimes people even get worse as years go on, as those automated abilities gradually deteriorate in the absence of deliberate efforts to improve
o Characteristics of purposeful practice:
§ Well-defined, specific goals — the general, long-run goal must be broken down into specific components that are all within reach
§ Focus — full, undivided attention
§ Feedback — must know whether you’re doing something right or wrong, and specific ways to adjust; done either through coaching (ideally) or paying close attention to which aspects of the skill bring the most trouble
§ Moving out of the comfort zone — must push the skill beyond familiar territory one step at a time, finding alternative ways around barriers as they arise
§ Maintained motivation — intrinsic or extrinsic
· Adaptability
o The brain’s overall structure and its various neural networks aren’t fixed, and they can adapt and grow in response to stimuli just as other parts of the body can
o If you practice something enough, your brain will repurpose neurons to help with the task even if they already have another job to do
o When a body system — certain muscles, the cardiovascular system, or something else — is stressed to the point that homeostasis can no longer be maintained, the body responds with changes that are intended to reestablish homeostasis
§ Unlike most parts of the body, the brain doesn’t usually develop new neurons in response to mental challenges, but it will strengthen or weaken various connections between neurons or adding new ones
§ Increased myelination (the insulating sheathe around nerve cells) will also occur over time, which will allow for faster firing of signals
§ Like the body, the brain also changes most quickly in a sweet spot just outside, but not too far outside, its comfort zone
o Additional details:
§ Younger brains are more adaptable than adult brains, so training can have larger effects in younger people
§ Developing certain parts of the brain through prolonged training can come at a cost — you may regress in other areas or tasks
§ The cognitive and physical changes caused by training require maintenance
· Mental Representations
o A mental structure that corresponds to an object, idea, collection of information or anything else, concrete or abstract, that the brain is thinking about; they make it possible to process large amounts of information quickly, despite the limitations of short-term memory
o Much of deliberate practice involves developing ever more efficient mental representations; almost all of these are domain specific and don’t have much carry over to other skills
o What sets experts apart is the quality and quantity of these representations — they develop highly complex and sophisticated ones of the various situations they are likely to encounter in their fields, allowing them to respond more quickly and effectively
o It’s not just enough to have the sophisticated mental representations, but they must also be organized and accessible in a way that allows you to sift through and recognize them easily (many times structured as types of algorithms like “if then” statements)
§ Representations are also necessary for planning and visualization before action; need to intimately know what you are expecting so that when something differs you can reevaluate and adapt
§ Accuracy of representations is critical for recognizing mistakes that need to be addressed — you can’t fix what you don’t see
· Deliberate practice
o Develops skills that other people have already figured out how to do and for which effective training techniques have been established (and can be overseen by a teacher)
o Takes place outside of one’s comfort zone and requires a student to constantly try things that are just beyond his current abilities; requires near-maximal effort, and is generally not enjoyable
o Involves well-defined, specific goals and involves improving some aspect of target performance (rather than some vague overall improvement)
o Requires full attention and conscious actions, cannot simply follow directions
o Involves feedback and modification in response to feedback; with time and experience, students learn to monitor themselves and adjust accordingly
o Produces and depends on effective mental representations
o Nearly always involves building or modifying previously acquired skills by focusing on particular aspects of those skills and working to improve them specifically
· Improving on the Job
o Mindset — must reject the ideas that one’s abilities are limited by genetics, that if you do something for long enough you are bound to get better, and that all it takes to improve is effort
o Idea is to turn regular events at your company into opportunities for skill-building and feedback; this gets people into the habit of practicing and thinking about practicing
o Have a system for repetitive practice (could be in the form of simulations) that has immediate feedback and focuses on key problem areas; have a database of best practices and most common mistakes
o Dig deep into the mental representations and thought process of best performers
o Must set up the conditions so that the application of skills is prioritized over knowledge
· Principles for Everyday Life
o Need a teacher who can guide your practice effectively
o Need focus, engagement — if your mind is wandering or you’re having fun, you are not practicing with purpose
o Break your skills down into components that you can do repeatedly and analyze effectively, determine your weaknesses, and figure out ways to address them
o The best way to move beyond a plateau is to challenge your brain or body in a new way; most of the time it will only be one or two components preventing you from moving forward — focus on those
o Set aside a fixed time to practice that has been cleared of all other obligations and distractions; this creates a sense of habit and duty that makes it less likely to be tempted by something else
o When you begin to identify yourself with your skill, further practice comes to feel more like an investment than an expense
o Set yourself up with extrinsic motivation by surrounding yourself with like-minded, supportive people who understand the importance of daily practice, or people whom you need to practice for (i.e. on a team); also need incremental, visible markers of progress
Phrases/Quotes:
· With deliberate practice, however, the goal is not just to reach your potential but to build it, to make things possible that were not possible before. This requires challenging homeostasis — getting out of your comfort zone — and forcing your brain or your body to adapt. But once you do this, learning is no longer just a way of fulfilling some genetic destiny; it becomes a way of taking control of your destiny and shaping your potential in ways that you choose.
· This puts the ten-thousand-hour rule in a completely different light: The reason that you must put in ten thousand or more hours of practice to become one of the world’s best violinists or chess players or golfers is that the people you are being compared to or competing have themselves put in ten thousand or more hours of practice. There is no point at which performance maxes out and additional practice does not lead to further improvement.
· Deliberate practice is for all those people who want to take control of their lives and create their own potential and not buy into the idea that this right here, right now, is as good as it gets.
· Focus and concentration are crucial, so shorter training sessions with clearer goals are the best way to develop new skills faster. It is better to train at 100 percent effort for less time than at 70 percent effort for a longer period. Once you find you can no longer focus effectively, end the session. And make sure you get enough sleep so that you can train with maximum concentration.
· While people with certain innate characteristics — IQ, in the case of the chess study — may have an advantage when first learning a skill, that advantage gets smaller over time, and eventually the amount and the quality of practice take on a much larger role in determining how skilled a person becomes.
· We call ourselves “knowing man” because we see ourselves as distinguished from our ancestors by our vast amount of knowledge. But perhaps a better way to see ourselves would be as Homo exercens, or “practicing man,” the species that takes control of its life through practice and makes of itself what it will.
