Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Studies of elite athletes and musicians have shown that there is only one aspect that reliably distinguishes elite performers from great-but-not-elite performers: the amount of time spent in solo practice, especially during childhood and adolescence. There are virtually no cases of people who were so prodigiously talented that they were able to bypass the need for long training in order to reach world-class status. Virtually all “child prodigies” (eg Mozart) were exposed to their field extremely early in their childhoods and grew up within nurturing families who were experts in that same field. Even despite the early start, child prodigies rarely accomplish anything truly groundbreaking in their fields before adulthood.

Short-term memory has little space and conscious thinking has low bandwidth. The goal of effective training is to build effective mental representations in the brain so that complicated skills can later be performed unconsciously. Ineffective practice techniques lead to eventual stagnation, regardless of how much time is put into it.

Effective practice must be deliberate and must require your full attention. High-quality practice requires you to be operating at the limit of your current ability and comfort level. Good practice must be specific and targeted rather than generic. It is essential to structure your practice sessions that so that feedback is abundant and immediate.

When done correctly, deliberate practice is an unpleasant and frustrating experience. Motivation is needed to persist and stay the course. Praise and approval work very well to motivate children. Past a certain point, motivation becomes intrinsic and students become willing to seek expertise for the sake of expertise itself. Teachers and educators can inject the principles of deliberate practice into their work by making their lessons more applied and by focusing on skill-building rather than knowledge-building.