You don't get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal
The popular social observer – Malcolm Gladwell – has recently released a new book called Outliers in which he analyses those amongst us that are at the outer boundaries of our profession / calling.
Those for whom there is little equal.
Those that are experts.
**
His writings are based on a 1994 New York Times article which in itself was based on a number of studies undertaken in the early 1990s and which still have relevance today.
Honestly Lay Bare has taken an interest in this work because it has a theory (as yet untested by anyone!) – the higher the number of experts involved in a discussion the greater the likelihood that all considerations will be afforded to the situation.
This wide ranging assessment (a risk assessment?) gives rise to a environment whereby strong practices of internal control and corporate governance are likely to foster.
Note – we don’t hold necessarily true that such an environment WILL eventuate. Rather that the best possible circumstances have been conceived for the environment to be nutured.
Back, however, to the study of experts.
**
Studies of chess masters, virtuoso musicians and star athletes show that the relentless training routines of those at the top allows them to break through ordinary limits in memory and physiology, and so perform at levels that had been thought impossible.
Perhaps the most surprising data show that extensive practice can break through barriers in mental capacities, particularly short-term memory. In short-term memory, information is stored for the few seconds that it is used and then fades, as in hearing a phone number which one forgets as soon as it is dialed.
The standard view, repeated in almost every psychology textbook, is that the ordinary limit on short-term memory is for seven or so bits of information -- the length of a phone number. More than that typically cannot be retained in short-term memory with reliability unless the separate units are "chunked," as when the numbers in a telephone prefix are remembered as a single unit.
But, in a stunning demonstration of the power of sheer practice to break barriers in the mind's ability to handle information, Dr. Ericsson and associates at Carnegie-Mellon University have taught college students to listen to a list of as many as 102 random digits and then recite it correctly. After 50 hours of practice with differing sets of random digits, four students were able to remember up to 20 digits after a single hearing. One student, a business major not especially talented in mathematics, was able to remember 102 digits. The feat took him more than 400 hours of practice.
Through their hours of practice, elite performers of all kinds master shortcuts that give them an edge. Dr. Bruce Abernathy, a researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia, has found that the most experienced players in racquet sports like squash and tennis are able to predict where a serve will land by cues in the server's posture before the ball is hit.
A 1992 study of baseball greats like Hank Aaron and Rod Carew by Thomas Hanson, then a graduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, found that the all-time best hitters typically started preparing for games by studying films of the pitchers they would face, to spot cues that would tip off what pitch was about to be thrown. Using such fleeting cues demands rehearsing so well that the response to them is automatic, cognitive scientists have found.
The maxim that practice makes perfect has been borne out through research on the training of star athletes and artists. Dr. Anthony Kalinowski, a researcher at the University of Chicago, found that swimmers who achieved the level of national champion started their training at an average age of 10, while those who were good enough to make the United States Olympic teams started on average at 7. This is the same age difference found for national and international chess champions in a 1987 study.
Similarly, the best violinists of the 20th century, all with international careers as soloists for more than 30 years, were found to have begun practicing their instrument at an average age of 5, while violinists of only national prominence, those affiliated with the top music academy in Berlin, started at 8, Dr. Ericsson found in research reported last year in The Psychological Review.
Because of limits on physical endurance and mental alertness, world-class competitors -- whether violinists or weight lifters -- typically seem to practice arduously no more than four hours a day, Dr. Ericsson has found from studying a wide variety of training regimens.
"When we train Olympic weight lifters, we find we often have to throttle back the total time they work out," said Dr. Mahoney. "Otherwise you find a tremendous drop in mood, and a jump in irritability, fatigue and apathy."
Because their intense practice regimen puts them at risk for burnout or strain injuries, most elite competitors also make rest part of their training routine, sleeping a full eight hours and often napping a half-hour a day, Dr. Ericsson found.
Effective practice focuses not just on the key skills involved, but also systematically stretches the person's limits. "You have to tweak the system by pushing, allowing for more errors at first as you increase your limits," said Dr. Ericsson. "You don't get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal."
Violin virtuosos illustrate the importance of starting early in life. In his 1993 study Dr. Ericsson found that by age 20 top-level violinists in music academies had practiced a lifetime total of about 10,000 hours, while those who were slightly less accomplished had practiced an average of about 7,500 hours.
A study of Chinese Olympic divers, done by Dr. John Shea of Florida State University, found that some 11-year-old divers had spent as many hours in training as had 21-year-old American divers. The Chinese divers started training at age 4.
"It can take 10 years of extensive practice to excel in anything," said Dr. Simon. "Mozart was 4 when he started composing, but his world-class music started when he was about 17."
Total hours of practice may be more important than time spent in competition, according to findings published by Dr. Neil Charness, a colleague of Dr. Ericsson at Florida State University. Dr. Charness, comparing the rankings of 107 competitors in the 1993 Berlin City Tournament, found that the more time they spent practicing alone, the higher their ranking as chess players. But there was no relationship between the chess players' rankings and the time they spent playing others.
The most contentious claim made by Dr. Ericsson is that practice alone, not natural talent, makes for a record-breaking performance. "Innate capacities have very little to do with becoming a champion," said his colleague, Dr. Charness. "What's key is motivation and temperament, not a skill specific to performance. It's unlikely you can get just any child to apply themselves this rigorously for so long."
But many psychologists argue that the emphasis on practice alone ignores the place of talent in superb performance. "You can't assume that random people who practice a lot will rise to the top," said Dr. Howard Gardner, a psychologist at Harvard University. Dr. Ericsson's theories "leave out the question of who selects themselves -- or are selected -- for intensive training," adding, "It also leaves out what we most value in star performance, like innovative genius in a chess player or emotional expressiveness in a concert musician."
Dr. Gardner said: "I taught piano for many years, and there's an enormous difference between those who practice dutifully and get a little better every week, and those students who break away from the pack. There's plenty of room for innate talent to make a difference over and above practice time. Mozart was not like you and me."
**
So 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert and will help fill in the gaps in the Honestly Lay Bare theory.
Before you start though – it is worthy of noting that if you worked an eight hour day and took your four weeks annual leave a year it would take you 5 years before you can consider yourself an expert.
And that is just practice – you would still have to find time over and above that to do your work!
The popular social observer – Malcolm Gladwell – has recently released a new book called Outliers in which he analyses those amongst us that are at the outer boundaries of our profession / calling.
Those for whom there is little equal.
Those that are experts.
**
His writings are based on a 1994 New York Times article which in itself was based on a number of studies undertaken in the early 1990s and which still have relevance today.
Honestly Lay Bare has taken an interest in this work because it has a theory (as yet untested by anyone!) – the higher the number of experts involved in a discussion the greater the likelihood that all considerations will be afforded to the situation.
This wide ranging assessment (a risk assessment?) gives rise to a environment whereby strong practices of internal control and corporate governance are likely to foster.
Note – we don’t hold necessarily true that such an environment WILL eventuate. Rather that the best possible circumstances have been conceived for the environment to be nutured.
Back, however, to the study of experts.
**
Studies of chess masters, virtuoso musicians and star athletes show that the relentless training routines of those at the top allows them to break through ordinary limits in memory and physiology, and so perform at levels that had been thought impossible.
Perhaps the most surprising data show that extensive practice can break through barriers in mental capacities, particularly short-term memory. In short-term memory, information is stored for the few seconds that it is used and then fades, as in hearing a phone number which one forgets as soon as it is dialed.
The standard view, repeated in almost every psychology textbook, is that the ordinary limit on short-term memory is for seven or so bits of information -- the length of a phone number. More than that typically cannot be retained in short-term memory with reliability unless the separate units are "chunked," as when the numbers in a telephone prefix are remembered as a single unit.
But, in a stunning demonstration of the power of sheer practice to break barriers in the mind's ability to handle information, Dr. Ericsson and associates at Carnegie-Mellon University have taught college students to listen to a list of as many as 102 random digits and then recite it correctly. After 50 hours of practice with differing sets of random digits, four students were able to remember up to 20 digits after a single hearing. One student, a business major not especially talented in mathematics, was able to remember 102 digits. The feat took him more than 400 hours of practice.
Through their hours of practice, elite performers of all kinds master shortcuts that give them an edge. Dr. Bruce Abernathy, a researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia, has found that the most experienced players in racquet sports like squash and tennis are able to predict where a serve will land by cues in the server's posture before the ball is hit.
A 1992 study of baseball greats like Hank Aaron and Rod Carew by Thomas Hanson, then a graduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, found that the all-time best hitters typically started preparing for games by studying films of the pitchers they would face, to spot cues that would tip off what pitch was about to be thrown. Using such fleeting cues demands rehearsing so well that the response to them is automatic, cognitive scientists have found.
The maxim that practice makes perfect has been borne out through research on the training of star athletes and artists. Dr. Anthony Kalinowski, a researcher at the University of Chicago, found that swimmers who achieved the level of national champion started their training at an average age of 10, while those who were good enough to make the United States Olympic teams started on average at 7. This is the same age difference found for national and international chess champions in a 1987 study.
Similarly, the best violinists of the 20th century, all with international careers as soloists for more than 30 years, were found to have begun practicing their instrument at an average age of 5, while violinists of only national prominence, those affiliated with the top music academy in Berlin, started at 8, Dr. Ericsson found in research reported last year in The Psychological Review.
Because of limits on physical endurance and mental alertness, world-class competitors -- whether violinists or weight lifters -- typically seem to practice arduously no more than four hours a day, Dr. Ericsson has found from studying a wide variety of training regimens.
"When we train Olympic weight lifters, we find we often have to throttle back the total time they work out," said Dr. Mahoney. "Otherwise you find a tremendous drop in mood, and a jump in irritability, fatigue and apathy."
Because their intense practice regimen puts them at risk for burnout or strain injuries, most elite competitors also make rest part of their training routine, sleeping a full eight hours and often napping a half-hour a day, Dr. Ericsson found.
Effective practice focuses not just on the key skills involved, but also systematically stretches the person's limits. "You have to tweak the system by pushing, allowing for more errors at first as you increase your limits," said Dr. Ericsson. "You don't get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal."
Violin virtuosos illustrate the importance of starting early in life. In his 1993 study Dr. Ericsson found that by age 20 top-level violinists in music academies had practiced a lifetime total of about 10,000 hours, while those who were slightly less accomplished had practiced an average of about 7,500 hours.
A study of Chinese Olympic divers, done by Dr. John Shea of Florida State University, found that some 11-year-old divers had spent as many hours in training as had 21-year-old American divers. The Chinese divers started training at age 4.
"It can take 10 years of extensive practice to excel in anything," said Dr. Simon. "Mozart was 4 when he started composing, but his world-class music started when he was about 17."
Total hours of practice may be more important than time spent in competition, according to findings published by Dr. Neil Charness, a colleague of Dr. Ericsson at Florida State University. Dr. Charness, comparing the rankings of 107 competitors in the 1993 Berlin City Tournament, found that the more time they spent practicing alone, the higher their ranking as chess players. But there was no relationship between the chess players' rankings and the time they spent playing others.
The most contentious claim made by Dr. Ericsson is that practice alone, not natural talent, makes for a record-breaking performance. "Innate capacities have very little to do with becoming a champion," said his colleague, Dr. Charness. "What's key is motivation and temperament, not a skill specific to performance. It's unlikely you can get just any child to apply themselves this rigorously for so long."
But many psychologists argue that the emphasis on practice alone ignores the place of talent in superb performance. "You can't assume that random people who practice a lot will rise to the top," said Dr. Howard Gardner, a psychologist at Harvard University. Dr. Ericsson's theories "leave out the question of who selects themselves -- or are selected -- for intensive training," adding, "It also leaves out what we most value in star performance, like innovative genius in a chess player or emotional expressiveness in a concert musician."
Dr. Gardner said: "I taught piano for many years, and there's an enormous difference between those who practice dutifully and get a little better every week, and those students who break away from the pack. There's plenty of room for innate talent to make a difference over and above practice time. Mozart was not like you and me."
**
So 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert and will help fill in the gaps in the Honestly Lay Bare theory.
Before you start though – it is worthy of noting that if you worked an eight hour day and took your four weeks annual leave a year it would take you 5 years before you can consider yourself an expert.
And that is just practice – you would still have to find time over and above that to do your work!
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