<p>Malcolm Gladwell is a fine and interesting writer, but some of the nuances of the research performed by K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues are often overlooked. They discovered that it is not 10,000 hours of repetitive practice that does it, but 10,000 hours of guided, deliberate practice. It involves systematically changing practice goals to push one’s self even further, and it involves finding high quality coaching and mentoring to guide the practice. In their research they have actually taught ordinary students to do extraordinary, savant-like memory, etc. performances. There simply is no evidence for natural talent as much as we might want to believe in it, or have this or that personal anecdote.</p>
<p>For those interested in this topic, I recommend: <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Expertise-Performance-Handbooks-Psychology/dp/0521600812[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Expertise-Performance-Handbooks-Psychology/dp/0521600812</a></p>