Apr 1, 2016
Michael Covel interviews Anders Ericsson. His new book is
“Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.” Starting around
high school, Anders became interested in how he could best improve
himself. When he got to college he studied how people could achieve
above average performance. He did a study showing the number of
digits average people could repeat back correctly. The average
number was about 5-7 digits. After an hour of practice they were
able to repeat about 20 digits correctly. With even more training
one student was able to get 70 digits in a row. This showed Anders
that the mind can improve with the right kind of practice.
Performance is trainable and purposeful practice is key. One major
component of successful practice is immediate feedback on whether
you are accurate or not.
Michael moves onto a study Anders did on taxi drivers in London.
They have to go through extensive training to drive the streets of
London. They are average people, but train for many years to be
able to pass this taxi driving test. After learning over 10,000
streets and different connections there brains actually changed. He
compared bus drivers in London, who did not have to go through the
same training, to the taxi drivers. The same changes did not occur
in bus drivers brains like the taxi drivers. They did not have to
master all the streets but rather just master certain routes.
Michael asks, “If they stop their taxi driving profession, does the
brain regress?” Anders says that yes, without practice your mind
will revert back to the old state.
Next, Michael and Anders use Mozart as an example of nature vs.
nurture. His father was a musician and taught young children how to
play instruments. Mozart was able to learn many of the musical
distinctions that he was famed for because he started so early,
around age 3-4. Any child at that age is able to learn the things
Mozart learned, however it is virtually impossible as an adult.
This moves into the idea of brain plasticity. It is important to
realize that you can’t push your child to learn longer than they
want to learn for. About 30 minutes is their limit. Beyond that,
they lose their capability for deliberate practice. Deliberate
practice helps raise the bar and get you better than you were
before.
The next example of extraordinary talent brought up are master
chess players. They don’t look at pieces individually, but rather
base their actions on pattern recognition. They see structure and
see where attacks may be successful. Grandmaster chess players are
able to play blindfolded and against 25 or so people
simultaneously. These are skills that are acquired and practiced.
Stephan Curry is also used as another great example of an
extraordinary achiever. If you understand the practice an
individual does then you can see their improvement over time.
Michael asks, “Has anyone said that their improvement was easy?”
Anders said that he has been studying this subject for over 30
years and about 50 people have said that improvement came easy, but
after talking for a few hours, their answers change. Michael then
asks about the validity of the idea that 10,000 hours makes you an
expert. Anders says he hasn’t seen that 10,000 hours is a magical
number. You need a lot of practice, but there are no magical
boundaries. When people count the number of hours that they have
done something, and it happens to add up to 10,000 hours, then that
doesn’t make you an expert. For example, if you have driven 10,000
hours, that doesn’t make you an expert.
Lastly, Michael circles back to the importance of deliberate
practice asking about the difference between youngsters and older
people seeing the benefits of deliberate practice. Anders says that
unfortunately most younger people that are so focused as a child in
their performance don’t go on to have careers in the field they
were pushed into. Those who chose and want to be in the sport they
are in usually go on to continued success. Deliberate practice
alone doesn’t make you successful. You need to have a sincere
desire for what you are doing.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio: