Inspiration for Acquiring Expert Status

When I first started thinking about Domino Theory several years ago, it was at a time when I felt I couldn't make a big impact without "trading it all in."  I know others have shared similar thoughts to mine like, "I would love to do something HUGE but I guess it's not in the cards." 

Another similar "gee wouldn't it be nice" that I hear a lot involves being a true expert at something.  Imagine watching a world class athlete, musician, artists, scientist, whatever...  "If just once in my life I could be that good at something."

So, for this round of inspiration, here's an interesting article I was sent regarding becoming an expert.  It might be too late to be an expert pole vaulter, but not for many other things.  For me, I want to be an expert Toppler :-)

Enjoy...

Mastering Complex Human Endeavors

The modern study of expert performance is said to have begun in 1973, when American Scientist published an influential article by researchers Herbert Simon and William Chase. The research reported that chess enthusiasts had to play for at least 10 years before they could win international tournaments. While 10 years is a necessary minimum to achieve expertise in most fields, it does not guarantee success. Anders Ericsson writes in the introduction to the 901 page Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (2006), “The number of years of experience in a domain is a poor indicator of attained performance.” Ericsson is a professor at Florida State and runs the school’s Human Performance Laboratory.

Ericsson, who is an expert on expert performance, found that rather than mere experience or even raw talent, it is dedicated, slogging, generally solitary exertion – repeatedly practicing the most difficult physical tasks for an athlete, repeatedly performing new and highly intricate computations for a mathematician – that leads to first rate performance. And it should never get easier; if it does, you are coasting, not improving. Ericsson calls this exertion “deliberate practice,” by which he means the kind of practice we hate, the kind that leads to failure and hair-pulling and fist-pounding. You like the Tuesday New York Times crossword? You have to tackle the Saturday one to be really good.

Take figure skating. For the 2003 book Expert Performance in Sports, researchers Janice Deakin and Stephen Cobley observed 24 skaters as they trained. The elite skaters spent 68% of their time practicing jumps – the most difficult components of their repertoire. Skaters in the second tier spent only 48% of their time on jumps. And, all skaters spent more time practicing jumps that already existed in their routines and less time on jumps they were attempting to learn. In other words, we like to practice what we already know rather than stretching our skills. Those who overcome that tendency are the real high performers.

Information excerpted from an article, “The Science of Experience”, John Cloud, Time Magazine, March 10, 2008