
Practice Makes Possible: What We Learn by Studying Amazing Kids - ALee
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/06/01/479335421/practice-makes-possible-what-we-learn-by-studying-amazing-kids?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
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mswen
Interesting juxtaposition - this morning I read [1] an interview at Vox.com
about how IQ researchers push back that what really consistently correlates
with a great diversity of what we label as success is in fact G the general
intelligence quotient.

Here in this article is an interview with Anders Ericsson about his new book
reaffirming his focus on deliberate practice as the key to "success" in any
particular field of study or skill development.

I would love for these different groups to design studies together.

Informally, when talking with my kids I reconcile these viewpoints with a
hypotheses about time-to-specific skill levels.

\- Higher intelligence speeds your journey to a specific threshold of skill
(fewer total hours to that threshold)

\- Higher intelligence means you probably have a higher ceiling in potential
skill level

\- Consistent deliberate practice in the same focused direction will get you
to the same place and maybe higher than someone with higher intelligence if
they are not as singularly focused

\- Consistent access to skilled teachers/coaches/mentors also makes a big
difference (which means that socioeconomic status matters)

\- Internal motivation matters because I won't keep bugging you - I might
remind you and give you some external motivators at the start of the journey
but in the end you need to "want it"

\- Quantity of effort matters - don't get overly stuck in making one thing
perfect - If you are learning to draw - draw a 100 different pictures of
birds. Do them very quickly set them aside and start another one. By the end
you will have captured the techniques better than if you had obsessed over
every little detail and only completed 10 pictures of birds.

\- If is fine to decide that journeyman level is good enough in a particular
skill - especially if you are starting to develop a complementary skill - that
is the world needs good multi-disciplinary generalists who can do a variety of
things really well but clearly not world class at any one of them.

\- Your skill ceiling is probably higher than you think.

\- Getting 'really good' at something may take longer and more effort than you
imagine or wish

This is how I integrate it for my kids. What do you guys think?

[1][http://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11683192/iq-testing-
intelligenc...](http://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11683192/iq-testing-intelligence)

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warmfuzzykitten
Selection bias by non-scientist who has "studied" a subject as a hobby for 30
years. Of course some people are born with special abilities. One of the
dissenting commenters writes "Baloney. I started drawing recognizable human
figures when I was two or three years old. At that age and with the parents I
had, neither coaching nor practice was involved. At every step of the way, I
was far, far ahead of my peers in attaining the typical developmental stages
of an artist." The author must know nothing of Srinivasa Ramanujan or Carl
Friedrich Gauss. He must have never heard of savant syndrome.

Yes, most people work hard to master their professions, but we don't all start
off equal and pretending so is delusional.

~~~
warmfuzzykitten
This seems relevant.

[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/inspired-by-
genius...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/inspired-by-genius-how-a-
mathematician-found-his-way/?WT.mc_id=SA_TW_MATH_NEWS)

