Making yourself a Champion in Bowls

"When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good?” was the seemingly primordial

question which  Professor Anders Ericsson attempted to answer in his 1993  paper  published in the "Psychological Review". Remember that research in the  field of Human Behavior is difficult because volunteers for research are not willing to commit to several years of trials. 

Ericsson`s most recognized research was what is today called the "10,000-hour rule". Although misinterpreted by many like Malcolm Gladwell it suggests that 10,000 hours of practice is needed to become an expert in a field or sport. 

In his early research, Ericsson by using "violinists at the Academy of Music in Berlin, divided the selected music students into three groups: those who had the chops to be world-class performers, those who were very good and those who planned to become music teachers." 

Professor Ericsson and two colleagues  discovered that what separated the violinists’ skill levels was not natural-born talent but the hours of practice they had logged since childhood. 

The future teachers registered around 4,000 hours, the very good violinists 8,000 and the elite performers more than 10,000 hours. The same study was conducted with pianists, with similar results, thus creating what became known as the "10,000 hour rule".

Using  the next few blogs I will look first at the  Podcast " titled "Anders Ericsson: Dismantling the 10,000 Hour Rule" by  the "Good Life Project founder Jonathan Fields who interviews K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, and discuss his last published book "Peak" on the "Secrets from the New Science of Expertise". (2016).

The first miss interruption of Ericsson work was by Malcolm Gladwell, author of best-selling "Outliers" (2008)

 actually popularized Professor Ericsson’s research;  but to many in the field of  "Human Behavior" research, it was consider to oversimplified  the findings of Ericsson`s 2009 research paper. 

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of

actually popularized Professor Ericsson’s research;  but to many in the field of  "Human Behavior" research, it was consider to oversimplified  the findings of Ericsson`s 2009 research paper. 

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of

As far back as 2006, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the book “Freakonomics,” attempted to explained Ericsson research in their NY Times profile of Professor Ericsson and stated that his lifetime work was "on defining what makes an expert in their field."  

Their book “Freakonomics, suggests that data analysis and incentives can explain a lot about human behavior. Using their tools of economics; they attempted to explain real-world phenomena that are not conventionally thought of in terms of "economics". (by Shortform)