Bounce: The of Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice

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This was really interesting. I basically believed in the central premise before I read it, but the amount of evidence he presents seems pretty conclusive. My favourite 'study' was a Hungarian guy who announced to the world he would make a chess grand champion to prove the hypothesis, fou He was English champion four times: in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001. He also won the men's singles event at three consecutive Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships (in 1997 in Glasgow, 2000 in Singapore and 2001 in Delhi), and also won three titles as a member of the English men's team in 1994, 1997 and 2000. He was a member of the England men's team that won the gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Most of us can’t find any motivation for well, anything but building Lego castles – when we’re children! When we get older, our success depends on it. In the end and despite its strengths (which are numerous), ‘Bounce’ exhibits many of the ‘PC’ sophisms prevalent in the present era and our discomfort with exceptionalism; the notion that, by definition, only a very small percentage of people will traverse the upper echelons of achievement, the road to which requires phenomenal levels of hard work and, yes, intrinsic ability. There is an amazing story about Laszlo Polgar, a Hungarian educational psychologist. He was an early advocate of the practice theory of expertise. His central thesis was that areas of expertise can be open to all, and not just to people with special talents. He was not believed, so he devised an experiment with his yet unborn daughters. He would train his children to play chess, a game where he was not an expert. He took care to allow his three daughters to become internally motivated to love the game, and to practice it frequently. Polgar himself was not a good chess player, but he thought that the international rating system would help to objectively quantify the level that his children would ultimately attain. To make a long story short, each of his three daughters became world-class chess players.

Syed took a lot of research carried out in the field of success, especially success in sports, and compiled it into a very readable book which is all the more interesting because its author isn't a scientist, but someone who has put the science he writes about to use: He's a Table Tennis Olympian. Syed's writing style is clear and enthusiastic, and he has a lot of personal experience to brighten up the hard facts. There's a lot of eye-opening and downright useful information in the book. It's also heartening to read not only about the successes of the successful, but also their failures, and why they happened. However, that doesn’t make him a better driver. In an everyday car crash, he wouldn’t hit the brakes any faster than you or me.Syed argues that embracing a growth mindset is not only important for individuals, but also for organizations and societies as a whole. He suggests that organizations should create an environment that fosters a growth mindset, where individuals are encouraged to take risks, learn from failures, and continuously improve. And Matthew Syed was able to learn this best from a direct competitor: Desmond Douglas. Even though tests proved that he was one of the table-tennis players with the slowest reaction times, he was lightning fast on the field! Here is an example of a fire lieutenant making a lifesaving decision, as recounted in Klein’s book Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions: Syed, Matthew (1 May 2012). "Should people accept that pressure is a fact of life?". BBC News . Retrieved 7 April 2019.

Hetherington, Graeme (5 April 2010). "Tom Blenkinsop, a campaign manager with steel union Community, chosen". The Northern Echo . Retrieved 5 April 2010. Within a month, another guy did it. Over the next 4 years, 20 more people broke the barrier, bringing the record all the way down to 3:56. In 2016, Syed was awarded an honorary doctorate in Liberal Arts by Abertay University in Dundee. [12]

In addition to table tennis and music, Syed provides examples from other fields to emphasize the power of highly focused, deliberate practice. He delves into the world of chess and explains how the Soviet Union dominated the chess scene for decades. The Soviet chess players, such as Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, were not simply born with an innate talent for the game; rather, they dedicated countless hours to deliberate practice. The Soviet chess system consisted of rigorous training programs, intense practice sessions, and fierce competition among players. This allowed them to cultivate their skills, spot weaknesses in their opponents, and develop strategic thinking that made them almost unbeatable.