Peak – Anders Ericsson
Are extraordinary performers born with special gifts, or are they made? Psychologist Anders Ericsson spent decades studying experts in fields as varied as music, chess, sports, medicine and memory, and concluded that what sets top performers apart is not innate talent but a particular kind of practice. In Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, written with science writer Robert Pool, he explains what he discovered.
Ericsson calls this approach deliberate practice. Unlike simple repetition, it involves working at the edge of one’s abilities, with clear, specific goals, full concentration, immediate feedback and, ideally, the guidance of a teacher or coach who knows how expertise in a field is developed. Over time, such practice changes the brain and body, allowing people to build abilities that once seemed impossible.
A key part of expertise, Ericsson argues, is the development of mental representations, detailed patterns of information stored in long-term memory that allow experts to see, understand and respond to situations far more effectively than novices. He illustrates his ideas with remarkable examples, including a student who greatly expanded his memory for digits through practice, and research suggesting that even perfect pitch can be trained in young children.
Ericsson’s research was popularized as the ten-thousand-hour rule, but in this book he explains why that idea oversimplifies his findings: the quality of practice matters more than the quantity of hours.
Clear and encouraging, Peak offers practical lessons for learners, teachers, parents, coaches and organizations. Some researchers continue to debate the relative roles of practice and innate factors in expertise.
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