I have a problem with the label "genius" and any qualifier that places an individual in a distinct category due to so-called "innate" talent. Such designations merely serve as a weak excuse for one's own underachievements, suggesting that success is attributed not to hard work but rather to an inherent gift.
Even the iconic Albert Einstein rejected the "excessive admiration and reverence" he was receiving, as documented in "The World As I See It." Einstein dedicated his life to his craft. He was seeing the impossibility for most people to understand his ideas as logical, as they were the outcome of a “ceaseless struggle”. Simply put, he did not perceive himself as a genius.
"Peak" struck a chord with me because it debunks the “gifted” or “genius” myth. According to the book, no musician, athlete, or writer can attain elite status without an immense amount of practice. However, the most valuable insight is Ericsson & Pool's description of what practice should entail to drive one towards peak performance.
In my article below, I distil the book's insights, exploring the methodologies, paradigms, and approaches that distinguish those who reach the pinnacle of their fields.
Ericsson and Pool conducted extensive research on hundreds of peak performers. They concluded that no one is born “gifted” or “a genius”. Performance in any field is the result of a long, steady practice. There are no shortcuts to success nor prodigies.
“By now it is safe to conclude from many studies on a wide variety of disciplines that nobody develops extraordinary abilities without putting in tremendous amounts of practice. I do not know of any serious scientist who doubts that conclusion.”
For instance, they examined violin students at a conservatory to discern the factors distinguishing top performers. Teachers were tasked with categorizing students into three groups: good, better, and best performers, considered future stars. After interviewing all the students, the sole and only difference among the three groups was the average cumulative amount of practice.
It is true, though, that exposure to certain activities as a child (e.g. music), while the brain plasticity is more important, yields higher results. The authors illustrate this phenomenon with the example of perfect pitch, known as "oreille absolue" in French. An experiment conducted with over 100 children, trained to recognise chords between the ages of 4 and 7, demonstrated that all participants developed perfect pitch.
Contrary to the idea that our brain plasticity disappears with age, studies on London cab drivers reveal that adults retains a significant level of adaptability. The demanding task of memorising all the streets in the city results in an overdevelopment of the brain area dedicated to spatial memory. This example emphasises the encouraging idea that it is never too late to tap into the brain's plasticity and pursue new skills or knowledge.
So the idea is that our brain and body are highly adaptable and allow us to learn new skill. Getting to a high level of mastery involves considerable practice. But not any type of practice. Some individuals, like amateur tennis players or even doctors, may practice extensively without noticeable progress. In certain cases, there is evidence that they may even regress. To get better at any craft, the name of the game is deliberate practice.
Let's deep dive into the characteristics of deliberate practice
For optimal efficiency, practice should be purposeful and well-informed, ideally guided by experts of the field. The essence of deliberate practice lies in its purposefulness, ensuring that each practice session has clear goals and a well-defined direction for improvement.
“Deliberate practice is purposeful practice that knows where it is going and how to get there.”
Advancement requires embracing challenges and disrupting homeostasis, the equilibrium within your organism. In the realm of chess, for instance, this involves engaging opponents with a higher ranking, albeit not excessively dominant to avoid losing motivation. Ericsson and Pool illustrate this necessity to find the right balance through a practical example in their book. In an experiment, a student is trained in short memorisation tasks, tasked with recalling a sequence of numbers. Each successful attempt leads to an increment of one in the string to memorise, while failure results in the subtraction of two numbers. This approach ensures that the student experiences success again after a failure and doesn’t get discouraged.
The imperative to step out of one's comfort zone is precisely why many individuals fail to achieve excellence in a particular field – it's inherently challenging.
“The reason that most people don’t possess extraordinary physical capabilities isn’t because they don’t have the capacity for them, but rather because they’re satisfied to live in the comfortable run of homeostasis and never do the work that is required to get out of it. They live in the world of “good enough”. The same thing is true for all the mental activities we engage in (…).
Deliberate practice requires well-defined, precise goals. These goals serve as the roadmap for improvement, providing a clear direction for the practice session. A lot has been written on how to set goals, so I won’t elaborate on this. Best practices include for instance breaking down large goals into smaller ones or setting a timeline for each milestone.
“Deliberate practice is not aimed at some vague overall improvement.”
Start your journey with a framework crafted by established experts renowned for devising optimal training approaches. Centuries-old disciplines like piano or wrestling have training techniques honed for centuries. The authors underscore the significance of mentorship in deliberate practice.
“The practice should be designed and overseen by a teacher or coach who is familiar with the abilities of expert performers and with how those abilities can best be developed.”
Moreover, deliberate practice requires a continuous feedback loop and the ability to make adjustments in response. While initial feedback often comes from a coach, it is crucial for students to evolve towards self-monitoring and self-adjustment over time. This transition empowers individuals to refine their skills independently, opening a sustainable path to mastery.
Deliberate practice requires a person's full attention on the task at hand and the associated goals. Simply following a coach, or mindlessly repeating movements is not enough. If you are relaxed or your mind is wandering, you won’t improve.
“Learning to engage in this way - consciously developing and refining your skills - is one of the most powerful ways to improve the effectiveness of your practice.”
The corollary of that: shorter sessions, high focus, high intensity, with precise goals, are more effective than longer, undisciplined ones.
Research has shown that for chess players, progress is determined much more by the time spent studying positions, patterns, rather than hours played. It takes approximately ten years of this type of study to become a grandmaster. By then, grandmasters built around 50 000 patterns in their minds.
Deliberate practice implies creating mental representations, identifying patterns that allow you to process information in a more efficient way. Athlete climbers study a cliff before going in, and identify patterns. However, these mental representations are domain-specific, they yield no benefit in other activities.
In essence, the core message of this book is that we can all attain an excellent level of performance in any field. All it takes is the right amount and type of practice. I find the "genius" or "outlier" narratives dangerous as they discourage us from unlocking our potential and pursuing our aspirations. They give us excuses for giving up. The book's assertion is clear: anyone can excel as an athlete, a proficient chess player, or a musician. As Shia Labeouf would say, just do it!
