Peak
Ratings58
Average rating4.2
How do the exceptional become the exceptional? Is you kid who isn't learning Calculus by age 6 doomed to a life of mediocrity? And what about this “10,000 hours makes you an expert” thing I hear about?
Peak is, at it's core, a book about how we learn. The 4 word answer to that question is “practice the right way”, and Anders Ericsson uses his own research and the work of others to provide you a path to improving your ability to learn a new subject and to, with time, achieve expertise.
Malcolm Gladwell popularized the 10,000 hour idea in his book Outliers, and there's an element of merit to it, but it's incomplete. Ericsson was responsible for that research, and goes into detail, but the short version is that the research was done in highly specialized fields with a lot of shared expertise already. He calls this deliberate practice.
Deliberate practice, as he defines it, may rely on a solidly established field with clear definitions and outcomes, but that doesn't mean there's nothing we can take away to our own areas of interest. Setting goals, finding a way to get feedback to evaluate outcomes, and ensuring that you are engaged and challenging yourself the right amount are all strategies encouraged through the book.
Overall, the message is that the human brain is incredibly adaptable and that systematically approaching new subjects (or old subjects you want to improve) can allow you to reach levels you didn't believe were possible.
This is a must read if you have interest in the brain.
10,00 hours is not simply a basic time requirement for mastery. This book addresses knowing how to learn, escaping plateaus and become the absolute best at your chosen field of expertise. It also debunks seeing others as simply ‘talented' and shines the light on what it takes to make it ‘look easy'.
Really great & important book. Points to the importance of practice as a core discipline in life and the significance of the distinction between knowledge and skills (& I would add willfulness)
Great insight into how to practice skills and from where does expertise come from. It is also quite a controversial book, as many claims (supported by a vast number of studies) contradict our natural believes of innate talent, etc. Fascinating conclusions, but sometimes the author goes around too long with some examples. It also leaves a couple of questions unanswered...
Excellent book that states what I believe for a lot of years. There are no natural born talents. Hard work is the only way to be outstanding!
Quite fascinating with a lot of history and background on the subject of deliberate practice.
I would have liked more tips and techniques on how to actually do deliberate practice as a knowledge worker.
There's this thread that runs through a lot of different subjects: fitness, marketing, learning, cleaning, etc. If I was to boil it down, it would be: just do it (and do matters much more than it).
The version of that thread runs throughout Peak is a little bit different. It goes: You can't practice without paying attention. If you're having fun you're probably not growing as fast as you could. You can develop almost any skill you want to a high degree. Whatever your excuse is, it's probably bullshit.
If that's a message you need convincing of, this is a great book to do it. If you've been primed by other books like Growth Mindset or The Power of Habit that explore similar territory, you might not need to read the whole thing. Either way, there's a good 20-30 pages that break down the conceptual pieces of how to practice deliberately and in a way that leads to fast growth, and I found that really useful. Your mileage may vary, but if you think you might be interested in this, you probably will be.
Read this book if you think natural talent is more important than practice and hard work. This book will help you look at your future differently. A very good place to start if you want to be great at something.
An excellent review of the current state of the literature on deliberate practice, by the man himself. Mr. Ericsson has been the principal researcher in the science of expertise for the past 2 decades. Here, he manages to write a book for a general audience without losing his scientific rigour. He even addresses some of the misconceptions around the “10,000 hour rule” that has gained popularity in the post-[b:Outliers: The Story of Success 3228917 Outliers The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344266315s/3228917.jpg 3364437] world. I was glad to get a definition of what deliberate practice, as well as an application guide, and I look forward to applying the concepts in this book to my own work this year.