Dr. K. Anders Ericsson is the co-author of Peak: Secrets From the New Science of Expertise. He is a Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Stockholm, Sweden and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon. He has worked with a Nobel Prize winner and written extensively on performance and increasing ability. Additionally, he is a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
I am interested in how “I” can do things better
What happens when someone changes their performance?
Novice à expert? What changed?
Started with cognitive memorizing tasks
Random digit record: currently around 500
What role do genes play in expertise development?
At high levels of expertise, we don’t see any correlation between natural ability (genes) and expert performance
With training, you are building something that allows you to perform at higher levels
Once you reach the level of automation, improvement declines or ceases
Doing something for decades doesn’t lead people to improve
Gifted children start an activity very good, but they reach a point where they need to build skill structures and they start to struggle because they find it much less rewarding
Naïve practice- engaging in the activity
Purposeful practice- follow a commitment to improve with immediate feedback
Deliberate practice- coach or teacher
Have a teacher that can guide you allows you to reach levels you couldn’t without it
Coaches help you with pacing- so you don’t burnout or fatigue
The goal of deliberate practice is not to reach potential but to expand and grow it
The foundation of the house determines how many stories you can add
We limit our own potential
Pushup record: consecutive 8000. Pushups in 24 hours: 20,000
Malcom Gladwell- Outliers and the 10,000-hour rule
Gladwell got it wrong- 10,000 hours (alone) does not an expert make
There is nothing magic about 10,000 hours
He was right that exception achievement is not created instantaneously
Intentional and deliberate
If you are going to put in a lot of time you want to choose something you are interested in
You can’t improve everything at once
