Transcript Talent Is Overrated

Talent Is Overrated
What Really Separates World-Class
Performers from Everybody Else
Geoff Colvin. 2008. New York: Portfolio.
The Mystery
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What makes Jack Welch, Tiger Woods, or Itzak
Perlman so awesomely, amazingly, world-class
excellent.
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Natural talent?
Hard work?
Years of experience?
None of the above.
Good news? Excellent performance is in our
hands far more than most of us ever expected.
Research
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In past 30 years scientists have looked into toplevel performance in a wide variety of fields.
Findings:
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Natural talent doesn’t explain top-level performance –
if talent even exists.
In fields such as chess, music, business, and
medicine, high IQ doesn’t necessarily correlate with
top-level performance.
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Some chess masters have below average IQ, for example.
Deliberate practice is the key.
Deliberate Practice
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Deliberate practice is extremely difficult.
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Why do some people have the passion to do it?
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The chief constraint is mental.
The required concentration is so intense that it’s
exhausting.
To put themselves through it day after day, decade
after decade?
But they do it, and as a result, performance in
all fields has improved dramatically in recent
decades.
Research
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In England researchers studied music students.
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The only difference in the top performing group and
other students was not talent, but the amount of
practice.
Talent is an innate ability to do something better
than others.
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If it does exist, it is irrelevant to superior
performance.
Practice is what counts – deliberate practice.
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Mozart’s talent is a myth.
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He didn’t get great until after he had 10,000 hours of
practice.
Tiger Woods talented?
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His father gave Tiger a putter when he was seven
months old.
Before he was two he and his father were on a
course practicing regularly.
Both father and son attribute Tiger’s success not to
talent but to “hard work.”
How Important Are “Smarts?”
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What are smarts?
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Memory?
We aren’t born with good memories, they are
developed…
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With deliberate practice memory can be improved (102
random digits is the record).
IQ?
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IQ is the ability to take an IQ test, nothing else.
No correlation between general IQ and success.
Domain-specific knowledge and intelligence is developed by
years of deliberate practice.
Deliberate Practice
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Design practice to work on specific skills.
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Practice alone and on specific weaknesses.
Practice is cumulative.
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Over the years it adds up.
And if you’re behind, it’s hard to catch up.
Ten years or 10,000 hours.
Five Elements of Deliberate Practice
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Activity specifically designed to improve
performance, often with a teacher’s help.
Activity that can be repeated a lot – over and
over and over again.
Feedback on results is continuously available.
It’s highly demanding mentally.
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Chess, business, sports
It isn’t much fun.
Designed
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Identify certain sharply defined elements of
performance that need to be improved.
High repetition is the most important difference
between regular practice and deliberate practice.
Deliberate practice is an effort of focused
concentration and is mentally draining.
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No more than five hours.
It’s not fun because you do things we’re not
good at so we can correct mistakes.
Top Performers
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They are always striving to improve.
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They understand the significance of indicators
that average performers don’t even notice.
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Not complacent.
Never let performance become automatic.
Intuition
They look further ahead.
They know more from seeing less.
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A few important indicators.
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Jack Welch concentrated on hiring people.
Applying the Principles
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Know where you want to go.
Practice, practice, practice (deliberate practice).
Deepen your domain knowledge.
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Build a mental model of how your domain functions
as a system.
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A mental model forms a framework on which you hang your
growing knowledge of your domain.
Helps you distinguish relevant information from irrelevant
information.
Helps you project what will happen next.
Know More (Explore)
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When you know more, you innovate more.
When you know more, you are more creative.
When you know more, you are more successful.
Summary
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Know how to practice deliberately.
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Become an expert in domain-specific knowledge.
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Lots of repetitions
Lots of feedback
Lots of focus and concentration
Thus, develop insightful intuition.
Never become complacent.
It’s really hard work.