The Art of Deliberate Practice

About three decades ago, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Professor William Chase and a postdoctoral fellow named Anders Ericsson posited an interesting theory. They argued that our innate talents — whether it’s playing the violin, winning at chess, or running a Fortune 500 company — aren’t really innate at all. After many years of research and conducting dozens of experiments, they concluded that the individuals we perceive as “geniuses” — Mozart, Tiger Woods, Itzhak Perlman, to name a few — become who they are through “deliberate practice,” not thanks to some miraculous higher power.

That means thousands and thousands of hours of hard work. Tiger Woods wasn’t born a gifted golf champion. His father, a pro golfer himself, started training him at age three. Mozart’s music wasn’t merely handed down to him by God; the composer rewrote his music numerous times, trying to perfect it as he went along. Violinists like Itzhak Perlman accumulated at least 10,000 hours of practice in 10 years before he finally mastered his art. In one study, Chase and Ericsson proved that great memory can be cultivated — anyone, at any level, can improve their memory skills, not just math wizards and chess players.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that no one succeeds unless they work hard. But what separates the “ordinary” people from so-called “gifted” people, Chase and Ericsson suggest, isn’t some magical inborn quality; it’s deliberate practice. According to Geoff Colvin, author of the book Talent is Overrated:

Deliberate practice “is designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher’s help; it can be repeated a lot; feedback on results is continuously possible; it’s highly demanding mentally, whether the activity is purely intellectual, such as chess or business-related activities, or heavily physical, such as sports; and it isn’t much fun.”

Deliberate practice equals high performance. I understand now why many of my teachers believed I was a “gifted” writer and artist. But my talents weren’t gifts bestowed upon me at birth. I was a good writer because I wrote every single day — journals, essays, school newspaper articles, letters — I even created newsletters that I sent to one of my cousins regularly. I started my first collection of short stories in second grade. And I excelled at art because, at 6, I began drawing pictures on a regular basis. I was practicing deliberately without realizing it.

In retrospect, it makes sense why, in film school, my editing and shooting assignments often stood out (one of my professors once told me he had no doubt that I would one day “make it”). Prior to film school, as a teenager, I shot and edited numerous silly little short films; I volunteered at a local broadcasting station and taught myself video production; during my spare time I wrote dozens of awful screenplays. I didn’t wait until film school to learn the craft of filmmaking.  

My point here isn’t to boost my own ego. Far from it. For the last few years I’ve been racked with self-doubt and uncertainty about my future. I’ve never had any doubts about my own talent, but here’s what I’ve realized: I haven’t been working hard enough. And you out there, whoever is reading this: keep working your ass off. Double the amount of time you spend on pursuing your dreams. Stop wallowing in fear and laziness. Surgeons don’t become surgeons after a year of med school; it takes up to 10 years. It’s a mistake to believe we can achieve overnight success simply by wanting it. You’ve gotta get out there on the field and train like crazy. We may never truly know where talent comes from, but what we know for sure is this: deliberate practice pays off.

Boredom kills

Boredom can kill, and Scott H Young knows a thing or two about it:

If you measured your life, not by achievements, but by how much boredom you could avoid, would you live life differently? Would you accomplish less? Or, by eliminating the things that dull you, would you end up completing more interesting things?

Life is too short to waste on uninteresting pursuits. Too many people have the false idea that success requires putting up with years of boredom to get what you want. I’d argue the opposite: the more boredom you tolerate in your life, the fewer meaningful things you are accomplishing.

Armenian Idle

Everyday a middle-aged Armenian man who lives in my apartment building sits on the terrace outside my living room window (my apartment is on the first floor, facing the street). His face looks rough and weathered, like a farmer’s, and he has a thick, black mustache, a feature that seems as indelible as his large, protruding ears.

For hours he does nothing except watch people pass by. Occasionally one of his relatives will come out and join him, and they’ll carry an animated conversation in their native tongue. Most of the time, though, the Armenian man sits idly, as if indolence were his sole occupation. He seems to lack any notion of time whatsoever.

I often wonder how anyone could allow so much of his or her life pass by through hours of seemingly perpetual boredom. But then it occurs to me that, I too, have been guilty of such blatant uselessness. Once, after watching a few “Friends” episodes on DVD, I laid on the couch, listening to the ceiling fan whir, trying to think of ways I could be more productive. I endured nearly two hours of unbearable monotony before I finally ventured out to the mall.

There are people out there who, perhaps unconsciously, devote their entire lives to idleness. The middle-aged Armenian man who lives in my building would probably be best described as “blissfully unaware.” He has no qualms about his future, no apparent frustrations about his life. The rest of us should be so lucky.

‘Catered Happy Hours’ at Facebook

Talk about employee incentives. These are the benefits of working at Facebook, according to the jobs page at Facebook.com:

• Medical, dental and vision plans with no premium for employees
• 401(k) plan
• 21 vacation days per year, plus 8 company holidays and 2 floating holidays
• Complimentary catered breakfast, lunch and dinner daily
• Complimentary beverages and snacks
• Dry cleaning and laundry service onsite
• Free downtown parking permit
• Subsidized gym membership
• Catered Friday Happy Hours at the office
• $600/month housing subsidy if you live within one mile of the office
• Standard-issue 24″ LCD monitors and your option of 15″ Apple MacBook Pro or IBM ThinkPad
• Worldwide notoriety by having your face on sample Facebook Flyers

So what’s your company doing to motivate the team?

Zen and productivity

I highly recommend reading zen habits‘ article on how to optimize productivity. The author offers tips that, on the surface, may seem easy and obvious, but following them will most likely increase your productivity in ways you couldn’t imagine.

“Without a routine, we have no good way of saying ‘no’ to requests as they come in, and we are at the beck and call of every person who wants our time and every website that wants our attention.”

- zen habits

An irresistible workplace?

Donna Karlin over at Fast Company paints us the ideal scenario: a workplace that’s irresistible, an environment that people would beg to be a part of. These types of organizations do exist, but the majority of us aren’t quite as fortunate to be a part of something so…dreamlike. But Karlin also poses an interesting question: can a workplace be too enticing? She brings up some valid points about maintaining a positive work-life balance. I wonder, though, if Karlin is taking for granted the kind of opportunities that some people will never see. While she’s complaining that employers might be caring too much, other people who are working suicide-inducing jobs are asking: will my employer ever care?

1001 days to combat procrastination

My friend Scott Trimble has created a list of 101 things he’d like to accomplish in 1001 days. He’s already checked off 13 items. Apparently, as Scott mentions, this anti-procrastination idea has become something of a phenomenon. Imagine how the world could change if millions of people got off their butts and did something about the things they’ve always wanted to do. We’d probably meet a lot less unhappy people at work and on the streets.