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Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

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Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise Kindle Edition

by Anders Ericsson (Author), Robert Pool (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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“This book is a breakthrough, a lyrical, powerful, science-based narrative that actually shows us how to get better (much better) at the things we care about.”—Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

“Anyone who wants to get better at anything should read [Peak]. Rest assured that the book is not mere theory. Ericsson’s research focuses on the real world, and he explains in detail, with examples, how all of us can apply the principles of great performance in our work or in any other part of our lives.”—Fortune

Anders Ericsson has made a career studying chess champions, violin virtuosos, star athletes, and memory mavens. Peak distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities. Whether you want to stand out at work, improve your athletic or musical performance, or help your child achieve academic goals, Ericsson’s revolutionary methods will show you how to improve at almost any skill that matters to you.

“The science of excellence can be divided into two eras: before Ericsson and after Ericsson. His groundbreaking work, captured in this brilliantly useful book, provides us with a blueprint for achieving the most important and life-changing work possible: to become a little bit better each day.”—Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code

“Ericsson’s research has revolutionized how we think about human achievement. If everyone would take the lessons of this book to heart, it could truly change the world.”—Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This book is a breakthrough, a lyrical, powerful, science-based narrative that actually shows us how to get better (much better) at the things we care about.” —Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

“Most ‘important’ books aren’t much fun to read. Most fun books aren’t very important. But with Peak, Anders Ericsson (with great work from Robert Pool) has hit the daily double. After all, who among us doesn’t want to learn how to get better at life? A remarkable distillation of a remarkable lifetime of work.” —Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics

“Ericsson’s research has revolutionized how we think about human achievement. He has found that what separates the best of us from the rest is not innate talent but simply the right kind of training and practice. If everyone would take the lessons of this book to heart, it could truly change the world.” —Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein

“The science of excellence can be divided into two eras: before Ericsson and after Ericsson. His groundbreaking work, captured in this brilliantly useful book, provides us with a blueprint for achieving the most important and life-changing work possible: to become a little bit better each day.” —Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code

“Wonderful. I can’t think of a better book for a popular audience written on any topic in psychology.” —Daniel Willigham, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of Why Don’t Students Like School?

“[Peak] offers an optimistic anti-determinism that ought to influence how people educate children, manage employees, and spend their time. The good news is that to excel one need only look within.” – The Economist

“All good leaders want to get better, and anyone who wants to get better at anything should read [Peak]. Rest assured that the book is not mere theory. Ericsson’s research focuses on the real world, and he explains in detail, with examples, how all of us can apply the principles of great performance in our work or in any other part of our lives.” – Fortune

“This is an empowering, encouraging work that will challenge readers to reach for excellence.” —Publishers Weekly

“[Ericsson] makes a strong case that success in today’s world requires a focus on practical performance, not just the accumulation of information. Especially informative for parents and educators in preparing children for the challenges ahead.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Inside Flap

From the world s reigning expert on expertise comes a powerful new approach to mastering almost any skill.
Anders Ericsson has made a career studying chess champions, violin virtuosos, star athletes, and memory mavens. Peak distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities.

Ericsson s findings have been lauded and debated, but never properly explained. So the idea of expertise still intimidates us we believe we need innate talent to excel, or think excelling seems prohibitively difficult. Peak belies both of these notions, proving that virtually all of us have the seeds of excellence within us it s just a question of nurturing them properly. Peak offers invaluable, often counterintuitive advice on setting goals, getting feedback, identifying patterns, and motivating yourself. Whether you want to stand out at work, improve your athletic performance, or help your child achieve academic goals, Ericsson s revolutionary methods will show you how to improve almost any skill that matters to you.

Peak offers more than just practical guidance, though. It demystifies the feats of many outstanding performers, from musical virtuosos to science prodigies to brain surgeons to entrepreneurs to professional athletes. It also offers compelling evidence that our schools are taking the wrong approach to education. And it shows us a convincing new view of the enormous potential we all possess.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B011H56MKS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperOne; 1st edition (April 5, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 5, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4664 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 339 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #101,662 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #21 in Sports Psychology (Kindle Store)
- #35 in Career Guides
- #109 in Sports Psychology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 3,307 ratings

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Robert Pool
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ROBERT POOL, Ph.D. -- a world-renowned author, consultant, and speaker whose areas of expertise include deliberate practice, deliberate practice training and education, and multiple areas of science, technology, and medicine -- combined his history, physics, and mathematics degrees with his love of writing to successfully transition from researcher and mathematics professor to an internationally published author and successful consultant and speaker. He has taught science writing at Johns Hopkins University and has worked as a writer and editor at the world's two most prestigious science publications -- Science and Nature -- and hundreds of his works have been published in the top publications in a variety of fields, publications that include Discover, New Scientist, Science, Nature, Technology Review, Forbes ASAP, Think Research, The Washington Post, FSU Research in Review, MIT Technology Review, and so on.
Dr. Pool co-authored his latest general audience book -- Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016) -- with Anders Ericsson, Ph.D., the world's reigning authority on expertise. Since Peak was released less than two years ago more than two dozen countries have purchased publishing rights, Peak has been translated into dozens of languages, and Dr. Pool has done numerous podcasts and interviews and been hired as a deliberate practice consultant and speaker by companies and groups around the world. His passion for deliberate practice and belief that it can change and better life as we know it has lead to his creation of various Peak Deliberate Practice social media (facebook, twitter, tumblr, pinterest, etc.) as well as a web site -- peakdeliberatepractice.com -- which he is designing to become an interactive community and forum for everyone interested in creating potential through deliberate practice.
Dr. Pool transitioned from academia and working as a professor to entering the field of writing in the newspaper industry, where his work as a business writer and science columnist earned him a number of awards. His work was so impressive, in fact, that it earned him international positions at the two most prestigious science magazines in the world. First he worked at Science, where he served as a research news writer and contributing correspondent. Then he served as news editor at Nature -- during which time he also served as a science writing instructor at Johns Hopkins University -- before becoming a freelance author.
For many years Dr. Pool has provided writing and consulting services for such prestigious groups as the National Academies -- comprising the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) -- which serve (collectively) as the scientific national academy for the United States. He has written hundreds of important books and reports for the academies -- many of them published by the National Academies Press -- covering such topics as homeland security, intelligence and counterintelligence, vaccine safety, transportation safety, pollinator collapse, the obesity epidemic, forensics in the courtroom, literacy and education, etc. These works have made a profound impact on and substantial contribution to the world. (National Academies books and reports influence policy decisions and laws; are instrumental in enabling new research programs; provide independent program reviews; etc.) In addition to books and reports, Dr. Pool has participated in and served as rapporteur/author for numerous national and international think tank and problem-solving workshops and committees and written extensive workshop summary booklets for the Institute of Medicine, the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Academies, the National Research Council Committee on Long-Run Macro-Economic Effects of the Aging U.S. Population, the National Research Council Committee on Understanding International Health Differences in High-Income Countries, the National Research Council Committee on Population/Panel on Understanding Divergent Trends in Longevity in High-Income Countries, the National Academy of Engineering Committee on K-12 Engineering Education, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for “Technical Revision of Congressional Budget Narrative” for nuclear physics section of the Department of Energy, the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Evaluation of NIOSH's Anthropometric Survey, the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Assessing Technological Literacy, and the National Academy of Engineering Committee for Making the Case for Technological Literacy, among many others. Dr. Pool also provides writing and consulting services for various private sector clients as well as such groups as the Military Suicide Research Consortium, funded by the Department of Defense.
In addition to Peak, Dr. Pool has written many other successful books -- four for a general audience -- including Eve's Rib: Searching for the Biological Roots of Sex Differences (Crown, 1994) -- still relevant to discussions of gender and gender issues two decades after its first release, often quoted/referenced in current publications, and referred to as an important contribution and invaluable resource in our understanding of gender and sex differences in the human brain -- and Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology (Oxford University Press, 1997) -- which has remained on university required reading lists for more than two decades.
Although Dr. Pool specializes in deliberate practice, deliberate practice training and education, and various areas of science, technology, and medicine, his ability to write in all genres and all fields is proven by the breadth of his work. For example, Dr. Pool has written sections for junior high and high school texts, ghostwritten various articles and books across a wide variety of fields, served as a writing and content consultant for industry newsletters, and written for annual reports, corporate communications, and public relations campaigns. On a fun note, he has even written and published in the field of creative writing, including short stories, poems, and songs.
The following is an abbreviated list -- many clients and projects cannot be included due to trade secrets and confidentiality agreements and most recent works and Peak Deliberate Practice work/engagements have yet to be added -- that includes some of Dr. Pool's consulting jobs and publications, including works for the National Academies:
EDUCATION & ACADEMIA:
--Graduated magna cum laude from Rice University with a B.A. in physics, mathematics, and history
--As graduate student spent year at Princeton with dissertation advisor
--Earned Ph.D. in mathematics from Rice University
--Instructor at Rice University
--Assistant professor at Texas A&M University
DOCTORATE THESIS PUBLICATION:
"Some applications of complex geometry to mathematical physics" -- included in Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society and referenced in dozens of major mathematical and scientific papers and publications.
GENERAL AUDIENCE BOOKS:
(1) Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2016 (with Anders Ericsson).
(2) Fat: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic, Oxford University Press, New York, 2001.
(3) Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology, Oxford University Press, New York, 1997. Paperbound version released in 1999.
(4) Eve's Rib: Searching for the Biological Roots of Sex Differences, Crown Publishing, New York, 1994.
MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPER, AND INTERNET ARTICLES:
Well over 200 articles in Discover, New Scientist, Science, Nature, Technology Review, Forbes ASAP, Think Research, The Washington Post, FSU Research in Review, MIT Technology Review, and other publications as well as hundreds more in newspaper and internet articles.
BOOKS/BOOKLETS SUMMARIZING NATIONAL ACADEMIES-SPONSORED WORKSHOPS:
(1) The Interplay Between Environmental Exposures and Obesity, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2016.
(2) Principles and Obstacles for Sharing Data from Environmental Health Research, The National Academies Press, 2016.
(3) Identifying and Reducing Environmental Health Risks of Chemicals in Our Society, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2014.
(4) Bringing Public Health into Urban Revitalization, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2014.
(5) Nexus of Biofuels Energy, Climate Change, and Health, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2014.
(6) Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule: Perspectives of Social and Behavioral Scientists, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2013.
(7) New Directions in Assessing Performance of Individuals and Groups, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2013.
(8) Sociocultural Data to Accomplish Department of Defense Missions: Toward a Unified Framework, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2011.
(9) Field Evaluation in the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Context, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2011.
(10) Emerging Safety Science: The Biology of Adverse Events, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2008.
(11) Assessing the Medical Risks of Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2007.
(12) Nutrigenomics and Beyond: Informing the Future, National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2007.
(13) Contributions of Land Remote Sensing for Decisions About Food Security and Human Health, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2007.
(14) Environmental Contamination, Biotechnology, and the Law: The Impact of Emerging Genomic Information, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2001.
(15) Ecological Monitoring of Genetically Engineered Crops, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2001.
(16) Bioinformatics: Converting Data to Knowledge, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2000.
(17) Finding The Path: Issues of Access to Research Resources, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1999.
(18) Privacy Issues in Biomedical and Clinical Research, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1998.
(19) Intellectual Property Rights and Plant Biotechnology, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1997.
(20) The Dynamic Brain, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1994.
NATIONAL ACADEMIES-SPONSORED REPORTS (WRITING/EDITING/CONSULTANT):
(1) Making Value for America: Embracing the Future of Manufacturing, Technology, and Work, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2015.
(2) Messaging for Engineering: From Research to Action, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2013.
(3) U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2013.
(4) Intelligence Analysis for Tomorrow: Advances from the Behavioral and Social Sciences, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2011.
(5) Explaining Divergent Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2011.
(6) International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2011.
(7) Conducting Biosocial Surveys: Collecting, Storing, Accessing, and Protecting Biospecimens and Biodata. Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2010.
(8) Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2006.
(9) Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More about Technology, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2002.
(10) Exploring Horizons for Domestic Animal Genomics (Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2002).
(11) Bioinformatics: Converting Data to Knowledge (Commission on Life Sciences, 2000).
ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRY:
“The Internet and World Wide Web,” for the Oxford Companion to United States History (Oxford University Press, 2000).
QUOTE:
Quote from Robert Pool regarding nature versus nurture in explaining differences in human behavior in The Columbia World of Quotations (1996) on Bartleby.com
GRANTS:
(1) Research and writing grant for book on the unknown, Sloan Foundation, $125,000, March 2001.
(2) Making the Case for Technological Literacy, National Science Foundation, $59,800, September 2000.
(3) "The Importance of Technological Literacy for Policy Making," National Science Foundation, $59,880.00, September 2000.
(4) Research and writing grant for book on obesity, Sloan Foundation, $126,000, December 1996.
(5) Research and writing grant for book on nuclear power, Sloan Foundation, $125,000, March 1992.
CONSULTING, ETC.:
(1) Consultant/writer/editor for the Military Suicide Research Consortium (funded by the Department of Defense), December 2010 – present.
(2) Consultant/copy editor for the Institute of Medicine, January 2007 – present.
(3) Consultant/copy editor for the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Academies, March 2011 – February 2014.
(4) Consultant/writer/editor for the National Research Council Committee on Long-Run Macro-Economic Effects of the Aging U.S. Population, December 2010 – March 2012.
(5) Consultant/writer/editor for the National Research Council Committee on Understanding International Health Differences in High-Income Countries, March 2011 – February 2012.
(6) Consultant/writer/editor for the National Research Council Committee on Population/Panel on Understanding Divergent Trends in Longevity in High-Income Countries, July 2009 – August 2010.
(7) Consultant/writer/editor for the National Academy of Engineering Committee on K-12 Engineering Education, February 2008 – January 2009.
(8) Consultant/writer for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for “Technical Revision of Congressional Budget Narrative” for nuclear physics section of Department of Energy budget request, July – October 2008.
(9) Consultant/writer/editor for Institute of Medicine Committee on the Evaluation of NIOSH's Anthropometric Survey, June – December 2006.
(10) Consultant/writer/editor for the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Assessing Technological Literacy, September 2004-January 2005.
(11) Consultant/writer/editor for National Academy of Engineering Committee for Making the Case for Technological Literacy, April 2000 - July 2002.
(12) Consultant/writer/editor for Standards for Technological Literacy, developed by the International Technology Education Association with support from the National Science Foundation and NASA, October 1998-January 2000.
(13) Consultant on technological innovation for CENTRA Technology, Inc. (under contract from the Central Intelligence Agency), December 1999.
(14) Consulting editor on Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine by Jon Cohen, 1998-1999.
(15) Writing and content consultant for three newsletters, Food Chemical News, Food Labeling & Nutrition News, and Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 1996.
DELIBERATE PRACTICE CONSULTANT, WRITING, & EDITING:
Numerous consultant/writing/editing engagements and contracts *(many more details to follow)*, including:
(1) Peaksware (peaksware.com)
(2) Rehearsal (rehearsal.com)
(3) Consultant/writer for Craemer Consulting (Workplace Communication, Organization Development & Leadership Coaching), 2016
PODCASTS/INTERVIEWS/SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:
Numerous podcasts, interviews, and speaking engagements *(many more details to follow)*, including:
(1) Windcastle Venture Consulting, Startup Geometry Podcast: August 30, 2016: http://bottlerocketscience.blogspot.com/2016/08/robert-pool-is-mathematician-science.html
(2) Speed Secrets Podcast (Calls "Peak" "one of the three most important books ever written.") -- July 27, 2017: https://podtail.com/podcast/speed-secrets-podcast/032-robert-pool-how-to-practice-to-drive-faster/
(3) The Remarkable Leadership Podcast: June 14, 2017: http://remarkablepodcast.com/power-deliberate-practice-robert-pool-53/
(4) Education Week Teacher--April 13, 2016: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2016/04/peak_an_interview_with_anders_ericsson_robert_pool.html
MORE INFO & SITES TO VISIT/FOLLOW:
(The following sites were all created and are managed by Robert Pool, Ph.D. and his wife/collaborator and business partner/Marketing Director, Deanne Laura Pool)
Follow Our "Robert Pool, Ph.D." Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RobertPoolPhD/
Follow Our "Peak Deliberate Practice" Facebook Page (primarily focusing on deliberate practice in general -- from the only deliberate practice expert who has spent two decades learning from and collaborating with K. Anders Ericsson, the scientist who discovered and coined the phrase deliberate practice -- with some discussion of Peak): www.facebook.com/PeakDeliberatePractice
Join Our "Peak Deliberate Practice" Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PeakDeliberatePractice/
Follow Our "Peak the Book" Facebook Page (primarily focusing on "Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise") : www.facebook.com/deliberatepractice
Visit & Join Our Regularly-Updated Website: www.peakdeliberatepractice.com. This web site -- published so far in beta form, without any focus yet on design aspects, so that everything can be tweaked and recommendations considered -- is a growing major website devoted to all aspects of deliberate practice, with detailed advice about ways to improve in various areas, reporting on advances in the field, interviews with expert performers, personal stories of individuals who have successfully applied deliberate practice in their own lives, videos, and more.
Visit Our "Peak" Website: www.peakthebook.com
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Anders Ericsson
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ANDERS ERICSSON, PhD, is Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. He studies expert performance in domains, such as music, chess, medicine, and sports, and how expert performers attain their superior performance by acquiring complex cognitive mechanisms through extended deliberate practice. He has edited “Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance” (2006) and “The Development of Professional Expertise” (2009).In the book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell based his “10,000 hour rule” on Ericsson and colleagues’s research on musicians.
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Wally Bock

Get the Full Story of Ericsson's Research from Ericsson Himself

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

Let’s cut right to the chase on this one. If you’ve read anything about Ericsson’s work, especially the concept of “deliberate practice,” and you want to understand it, you should buy and read Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise at least a couple of times.

The fact is that most of the stuff out there about Ericsson’s work is incomplete and imprecise. I think we have Ericsson to blame for most of that.

Most commentators have based their understanding and perceptions on Ericsson’s interviews and academic writing. Those were sometimes works in progress and sometimes incomplete, but this book is different. This time, Ericsson used a professional writer, Robert Pool. I’m biased, of course, since I do the same kind of work that Pool does, but I think his participation in the book makes the book more comprehensive, more coherent, and more understandable.

The book begins with a review of things we’ve been learning from psychologists for the last 20 years or so. It’s all about how the brain isn’t a fixed thing but is very plastic and changes based on experience. Ericsson outlines his part in some of the research that’s led us to the “plasticity” conclusion.

The message is clear. Despite what you may have learned growing up (as I did), abilities and talents are not generally fixed at birth. We can improve our performance in almost any area if we work at it. But wait, there’s more.

It’s not enough to just work at it. Simply practicing your golf swing over and over will not make you a better golfer. There are specific ways to improve, and Ericsson presents us with two of them.

“Purposeful practice” is the first one. That’s a term you may not have become familiar with from other people’s writings about Ericsson’s work. Ericsson sums up purposeful practice this way.

“So, here we have purposeful practice in a nutshell: get outside your comfort zone but do it in a focused way, with clear goals, a plan for reaching those goals, and a way to monitor your progress. Oh, and figure out a way to maintain your motivation.”

Deliberate practice is a subset of purposeful practice. Deliberate practice requires two things. First, it must be part of a field in which excellent performance has been observed and delineated and, second, there must be teachers who can provide practice activities designed to help the student improve performance. That’s a fairly limited range of domains.

Ericsson is very clear that you can only do true deliberate practice in a few fields. He’s talking about musical performance, chess, dance, gymnastics and other similar domains. In other words, if you’re in those domains get an expert teacher and don’t try this at home. What if you’re not, though?

Don’t despair. If you’re a manager or a practitioner of some other kind of field and you’d like to get better with some kind of purposeful practice, this book has a lot of guidance about how to do it well. I’ll speak about business managers because that’s the group that I write for.

Let’s say that you’re a business manager and you want to get really good at what you do. Ericsson says you should start with good “mental representations.” Mental representations are a key to getting things right if you’re not in a field where you can do deliberate practice. Here’s how it works.

In the beginning, you need to learn what effective work looks like. That matches what I’ve found in research into great bosses. Most of them had a boss early in their career who was an excellent role model. In other words, they could see from their first boss or two what good work looked like.

It helps if you get regular feedback from people who know more than you do about the craft. That’s one reason I encourage companies and managers to create peer support groups. Once the role models and feedback have given you a good idea of what good performance is, you can set up systems where you give yourself feedback.

Again, my own experience supports Ericsson’s assertions. In training, we would first have people develop an idea of what being a good boss looks like based on their personal experience of working for one. For the rest of the time we had together, we would keep referring back to that model. As we came to the end of the training, we would talk about what Ericsson would call “purposeful practice.” We’d discuss how you can grade your own performance.

That’s necessary because a manager’s most important work doesn’t have immediate feedback. The results show up down the road. So you have to have your own, more timely, feedback based on your mental model of great performance.

Bottom Line

Many writers have attempted to explain the implications of Anders Ericsson’s concept of deliberate practice. In Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise you’ll learn that deliberate practice is a subset of purposeful practice. You learn that true deliberate practice is limited to a very specific list of disciplines. Most important, you also learn how you can apply the principles of purposeful practice to just about any domain where you want to improve your performance. This book is worth buying and reading, more than once, as you apply the lessons of purposeful practice to your own life, work, and career.

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Oded Regev

This is the best book I've read in a really long time...

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is the best book I've read in a really long time..

I'm a big fan of "self improvement" books and it's so rare these days to find a genuine, original work with breakthrough ideas that are actually backed up by real academic research. The data and research described in this book are really fresh, some of it from mid 2015.

The findings in this book about learning, practicing, studying a new skill - are so powerful that I honestly think this is the type of books that can really change the course of one's life, if you choose to act on the wisdom and lessons of this book.

First this book destroys the false belief that we all have natural talent for some skills (like playing music) and we DON'T have natural talent for others like sing or dance. The author brings strong and convincing data to proof that this "natural talent" just a myth and nothing more.

Yes, if you take 50 people and teach them a new skill, like playing the piano, after the first 100 hours, some of them will do better than others - that's the main reason why we all think there is such a thing as "natural talent" or "gift". However, it turns out that once each person can pass the "beginner" phase if he will practice enough, and even if it takes you twice as many hours as the guy next to you, once you pass that first phase and aim to be at the top, or one of the best in that skill - it's all about practicing and working hard, really hard, "natural talent" has nothing to do with it.

I really liked chapters (5) and (6) which describe in detail how one should practice when he\she wants to learn a new skill, or to improve a specific skill one is already familiar with. Let's say you have 8 hours a week to work on a certain skill, it turns out that there are a few principles which together are called "deliberate practice" and if you'll follow them, the effectiveness of your practice will be so much more than just practicing without giving these principles any thought.

Having a coach is extremely important when learning a new skill. after reading this book you'll be convinced too. Also it's important to make sure you give your full attention when you practice and not think about other, not related, things. You need to give your full effort during practice.

Many people think that if they just repeat what they do and know, it's called practice. The best example in the book is with doctors who think they have "20 years of practice in field X", which is actually just repeating for 20 years the same steps over and over again, without learning anything new, without improving the weak points, without getting any feedback from some expert who watch the doctor act. It turns out that just repeating will actually make the skill go backwards, not forward, thus studies have shown that younger doctors just out of school usually perform better, because they have the knowledge from school fresh.

Every chapter in this book is mind opening, surprising, full with interesting real life stories, examples and anecdotes. I learned so much from this book and enjoyed every moment of it. Even more important, the author convinced me that at the age of 32 I can learn and be really good at almost any skill I choose, even if I never done it before. The author wants to break the myth that if you didn't do X while you were a child, it mean
s that you can't do it, or that it's too late. I really believe I can learn how to cook, swim, play tennis, maybe even sing, and I plan to ACTUALLY do it.

I want to take the opportunity to say thank you for the authors of this book who have done an amazing amazing work.

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Juan Pedro Azcona

Muy bueno

Reviewed in Mexico on August 29, 2022

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Se exponen casos de éxito desde distintos escenarios y queda muy clara la recomendación de lo necesario para convertirse en experto

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Potz

PeaKED

Reviewed in Brazil on August 25, 2021

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Uma jóia. Cheio de de informações bem fundamentadas em pesquisas. E o mais legal, aplicável !

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DANA

FORMIDABLE ET ÉDIFIANT

Reviewed in France on June 26, 2023

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C'est fascinant de voir comment "PEAK: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise" remet en question le concept du talent inné en faveur de l'acquisition de compétences grâce à la pratique délibérée. Les preuves solides présentées par l'auteur, Anders Ericsson, donnent une perspective totalement nouvelle sur la façon dont nous pouvons devenir des experts dans n'importe quel domaine.
L'une des choses les plus convaincantes dans ce livre est la méthode d'apprentissage optimale développée par Ericsson, basée sur ses propres recherches approfondies sur l'expertise. Cette méthode offre un cadre clair et structuré pour quiconque souhaite améliorer ses compétences et atteindre un niveau d'excellence. En se concentrant sur la pratique délibérée, il montre que l'amélioration continue est possible et que la maîtrise d'un domaine ne dépend pas simplement de dons naturels.
L'approche scientifique d'Ericsson est admirable, car il appuie ses affirmations par une solide base de recherches et d'études de cas. En lisant ce livre, j'ai été impressionné par la rigueur avec laquelle il démystifie les mythes courants sur l'expertise et fournit des exemples concrets pour étayer ses arguments.
De plus, "PEAK" offre une grande inspiration et une motivation pour ceux qui aspirent à atteindre un niveau supérieur dans leur domaine. Il démontre que l'expertise n'est pas réservée à une élite, mais qu'elle peut être acquise par tous ceux qui sont prêts à investir du temps, de l'effort et de la détermination.
En résumé, "PEAK: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise" est un livre captivant et convaincant qui remet en question nos croyances sur le talent inné et présente une approche fondée sur des preuves pour développer notre expertise. C'est un guide précieux pour tous ceux qui cherchent à exceller dans leur domaine en adoptant une approche de pratique délibérée.

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MM EE

Opening a new way of learning

Reviewed in Spain on June 19, 2023

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One of the greatest way to learn
For those who want to exceed new ways
This is a book to overcome a plateau in learning

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