Name: Peak
ISBN: 9781847923196

Anders Ericsson

Robert Pool

Selected as a Book of the Year by New Statesman Mozart wasn't born with perfect pitch. Most athletes are not born with any natural advantage. Three world-class chess players were sisters, whose success was planned by their parents before they were even born. Anders Ericsson has spent thirty years studying The Special Ones, the geniuses, sports stars and musical prodigies. And his remarkable finding, revealed in Peak, is that their special abilities are acquired through training. The innate 'gift' of talent is a myth. Exceptional individuals are born with just one unique ability, shared by us all - the ability to develop our brains and bodies through our own efforts. Anders Ericsson's research was the inspiration for the popular '10,000-hour rule' but, he tells us, this rule is only the beginning of the story. It's not just the hours that are important but how you use them. We all have the seeds of excellence within us - it's merely a question of how to make them grow. With a bit of guidance, you'll be amazed at what the average person can achieve. The astonishing stories in Peak prove that potential is what you make it.

Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Peak

“This book is a breakthrough, a lyrical, powerful, science-based narrative that actually shows us how to get better (much better) at the things we care about.”—Seth Godin, author of Linchpin “Anyone who wants to get better at anything should read [Peak]. Rest assured that the book is not mere theory. Ericsson’s research focuses on the real world, and he explains in detail, with examples, how all of us can apply the principles of great performance in our work or in any other part of our lives.”—Fortune Anders Ericsson has made a career studying chess champions, violin virtuosos, star athletes, and memory mavens. Peak distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities. Whether you want to stand out at work, improve your athletic or musical performance, or help your child achieve academic goals, Ericsson’s revolutionary methods will show you how to improve at almost any skill that matters to you. “The science of excellence can be divided into two eras: before Ericsson and after Ericsson. His groundbreaking work, captured in this brilliantly useful book, provides us with a blueprint for achieving the most important and life-changing work possible: to become a little bit better each day.”—Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code “Ericsson’s research has revolutionized how we think about human achievement. If everyone would take the lessons of this book to heart, it could truly change the world.”—Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein

The main idea of the book is to present the idea of deliberate practice, a way to purposefully practice your craft to gain mental representation and become an expert in your field. The concept is simple:

- Well-defined specific goals, not just repetition.
- Focused, full of attention practice.
- Get out of your comfort zone.
- Monitor your progress.
- Figure out how to maintain your motivation.

You design the learning process to learn how to do the craft, learn the mental representations that experts use in this field, and design a feedback loop (the regular cycle of try, fail, get feedback, try again, and so on is how the students will build their mental representations.)

The book has plenty of research and examples. It's a bit repetitive, but I like the idea of reinforcing the concept and make me think and rethink my ways of learning throughout the book.

Jeremy Anderberg

In Malcolm Gladwell's supremely popular Outliers, he introduced the now-famous "10,000-hour rule." The gist was that it took 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something — at anything you put your mind to.

The original study that Gladwell cited was in fact Anders Ericsson's. In Peak, Anders set out to correct Gladwell and fully explain the "rule."

As could have been expected, the rule isn't so concrete. There are a crazy amount of variables, the most important being the type of practice you do. There's bad practice and good practice and best practice, and Anders lays out exactly what each type looks like in the first part of the book.

These parts are what I personally found most interesting. Using examples from music training to number memorization to chess and plenty more, Ericsson reveals how expertise is truly developed.

Later on he answers some intriguing questions — how early do you need to start? what about "natural talent"? — but I didn't think the second half was as pertinent. Anders got into the basically unbreakable rule of needing an elite coach in order to achieve mastery; but that's not usually attainable, especially if what you're trying to master is more in line with a hobby than a career-defining skill.

Not a real serious complaint though, and Peak is definitely worth reading if you're trying to get better at, well, anything.

Jeni Enjaian

I always love getting to cleanse my palette with a good book after an abysmal one. I know I would have loved this book even if I had not just read "4 hour work week" but reading that gag-worthy tome heightened my enjoyment of this book even more.
Ericsson pens a captivating tome that sparked my own desire to become more deliberate in my practice of the things that I love like writing and running. I cannot wait to put this information into practice.

Lance Willett

My full review: https://simpledream.net/2016/04/28/pe...

Thesis: there is no such thing as natural ability — anyone can become an expert by putting in the time (10K hour rule). Traits favorable to a task help at the beginning, but don't make a difference at high levels — it all comes down to effort.

Mastery is possible through deliberate practice, focused training with an expert who can push you to a higher understanding of the craft. A key ingredient is using mental representations, these help you perform automatically because the actions have become second nature.

To excel one only needs to look within.

Meta notes:

First mention seen in The Economist, April 02, 2016 and I read a hard copy from Pima County Public Library.

The Economist compares this book favorably over its contemporary by Charles Duhigg, which I have not read yet, saying Faster, Better oversimplifies the topic by defining 8 "main traits," and jumps around a bit too much.

Peak Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Reviews

Highlights