## The Little Book of Talent ### The Little Book of Talent  #### Metadata * Author: [[Daniel Coyle]] * Full Title: The Little Book of Talent * Category: #books #### Highlights * We are often taught that talent begins with genetic gifts—that the talented are able to effortlessly perform feats the rest of us can only dream about. This is false. Talent begins with brief, powerful encounters that spark motivation by linking your identity to a high-performing person or group. This is called ignition, and it consists of a tiny, world-shifting thought lighting up your unconscious mind: I could be them. (Location 152) * Tags: [[favorite]] * The key to effective engraving is to create an intense connection: to watch and listen so closely that you can imagine the feeling of performing the skill. For physical skills, project yourself inside the performer's body. Become aware of the movement, the rhythm; try to feel the interior shape of the moves. For mental skills, simulate the skill by re-creating the expert's decision patterns. Chess players achieve this by replaying classic games, move by move; public speakers do it by regiving great speeches complete with original inflections; musicians cover their favorite songs; some writers I know achieve this effect by retyping passages verbatim from great works. (It sounds kind of Zen, but it works.) (Location 191) * Here's what it looked like: Clarissa played a few notes. Then she made a mistake and immediately froze, as if the clarinet were electrified. She peered closely at the sheet music, reading the notes. She hummed the notes to herself. She fingered the keys in a fast, silent rehearsal. Then she started again, got a bit farther, made another mistake, stopped again, and went back to the start. In this fashion, working instinctively, she learned the song. McPherson calculated that Clarissa learned more in that span of five minutes than she would have learned in an entire month practicing her normal way, in which she played songs straight through, ignoring any mistakes. Why? Picture the wires of Clarissa's brain during those five minutes. Each time she made a mistake, she was 1) sensing it and 2) fixing it, welding the right connection in her brain. Each time she repeated the passage, she was strengthening those connections and linking them together. She was not just practicing. She was building her brain. She was in the sweet spot. (Location 437) * For example, a golfer lining up a putt should tell herself, "Center the stroke," not "Don't pull this putt to the left." A violinist faced with a difficult passage should tell himself, "Nail that A-flat," not "Oh boy, I hope I don't miss that A-flat." Psychologists call this "positive framing," and provide plentiful theories of how framing affects our subconscious mind. (Location 617) * This piece of advice comes from Dr. Douglas Fields, a neurologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, who researches memory and learning. He discovered that our brains make stronger connections when they're stimulated three times with a rest period of ten minutes between each stimulation. The real-world translation: To learn something most effectively, practice it three times, with ten-minute breaks between each rep. "I apply this to learning all the time in my own life, and it works," Fields says. "For example, in mastering a difficult piece of music on the guitar, I practice, then I do something else for ten minutes, then I practice again [and so on]." (Location 640) * This is a useful habit I've heard about from dozens of top performers, ranging from surgeons to athletes to comedians. Just before falling asleep, they play a movie of their idealized performance in their heads. A wide body of research supports this idea, linking visualization to improved performance, motivation, mental toughness, and confidence. Treat it as a way to rev the engine of your unconscious mind, so it spends more time churning toward your goals. (Location 711) * To avoid this, use language that is concrete and specific. For example:     • "Move your hands higher" is vague. "Move your hands next to your ear" is concrete.     • "Play the song a little faster" is vague. "Match the metronome" is concrete.     • "Please work more closely with the sales team" is vague. "Please check in with the sales (Location 745) * The solution is to create your own scorecard. Pick a metric that measures the skill you want to develop, and start keeping track of it. Use that measure to motivate and orient your learners. As a saying goes, "You are what you count." (Location 757) * For example, I've encountered a number of top soccer, basketball, and hockey coaches who track the number of smart passes their team makes during a game, and who use this number—not the score—as the most accurate measure of their team's success. The players catch on, and try to exceed themselves each game. Regardless of what happens on the scoreboard, this number gives them an accurate way to measure their real progress. (Location 759) * Recently, United Parcel Service was struggling with its driver-training program. Retention was down; injury and dissatisfaction were up. UPS responded with a novel program: It canceled classroom lectures and built a $34-million training center that resembled a small town, so the trainees could learn by doing. The trainees didn't hear lectures about how to drive, stack, or deliver—they actually did it. To teach balance, UPS trainers secretly squirted soap on the floor and had trainees walk across it carrying a load of boxes. (The trainees were hooked up to safety harnesses, so they weren't injured.) The program was a success; (Location 773) * Some progressive schools increase reachfulness through a technique called "flipping the classroom." The term refers to changing the traditional model, in which students spend class time listening to a lecture and then do reinforcement work at home. In a flipped classroom, students do the reverse. They listen to lectures at home, online, and spend class time actively struggling with the work: doing problems, wrestling with concepts—in essence, reaching—while the teacher walks around, coach-style, and helps individuals one at a time. In a yearlong study of algebra students at one California high school, the flipped classroom scored 23 percent higher on tests than the conventional classroom. (Location 778) * Your long-term goal as a teacher, coach, or mentor is to help your learners improve so much that they no longer need you. To do this, avoid becoming the center of attention. Aim instead to create an environment where people can keep reaching on their own. Whenever possible, step away and create moments of independence. Think of your job as building a little master-coach chip in their brains—a tiny version of you, guiding them as they go forward. (Location 787) * Don't get me wrong. Public competition is a great thing. It teaches invaluable lessons about teamwork, it helps build emotional control, and it's fun. But it's also, in many cases, a deeply inefficient way to improve skill. One solution to the problem is to make public performance a special occasion, not a routine. A five-to-one ratio of practice time to performance time is a good starting point; ten to one is even better. (Location 829) * A recent study at Massachusetts General Hospital showed that practicing meditation for twenty-seven minutes a day created lasting brain changes in (you guessed it) eight weeks. (Location 868) * Grit isn't inborn. It's developed, like a muscle, and that development starts with awareness. To take Duckworth's test, do a computer search for "Grit Survey" (or go directly to www.​authentichappiness​.​sas.​upenn.​edu/​tests/​SameAnswers/​t.​aspx?​id=​1246). Take the test and use your score as a way to reflect on the role of this quality in your life. For instance, when you hit an obstacle, how do you react? Do you tend to focus on a long-term goal, or move from interest to interest? What are you seeking in the long run? Begin to pay attention to places in your life where you've got grit, and celebrate them in yourself and others. (Location 901) # The Little Book of Talent  ## Metadata - Author: [[Daniel Coyle]] - Full Title: The Little Book of Talent - Category: #books ## Highlights - We are often taught that talent begins with genetic gifts—that the talented are able to effortlessly perform feats the rest of us can only dream about. This is false. Talent begins with brief, powerful encounters that spark motivation by linking your identity to a high-performing person or group. This is called ignition, and it consists of a tiny, world-shifting thought lighting up your unconscious mind: I could be them. (Location 152) - Tags: [[favorite]] - The key to effective engraving is to create an intense connection: to watch and listen so closely that you can imagine the feeling of performing the skill. For physical skills, project yourself inside the performer’s body. Become aware of the movement, the rhythm; try to feel the interior shape of the moves. For mental skills, simulate the skill by re-creating the expert’s decision patterns. Chess players achieve this by replaying classic games, move by move; public speakers do it by regiving great speeches complete with original inflections; musicians cover their favorite songs; some writers I know achieve this effect by retyping passages verbatim from great works. (It sounds kind of Zen, but it works.) (Location 191) - Here’s what it looked like: Clarissa played a few notes. Then she made a mistake and immediately froze, as if the clarinet were electrified. She peered closely at the sheet music, reading the notes. She hummed the notes to herself. She fingered the keys in a fast, silent rehearsal. Then she started again, got a bit farther, made another mistake, stopped again, and went back to the start. In this fashion, working instinctively, she learned the song. McPherson calculated that Clarissa learned more in that span of five minutes than she would have learned in an entire month practicing her normal way, in which she played songs straight through, ignoring any mistakes. Why? Picture the wires of Clarissa’s brain during those five minutes. Each time she made a mistake, she was 1) sensing it and 2) fixing it, welding the right connection in her brain. Each time she repeated the passage, she was strengthening those connections and linking them together. She was not just practicing. She was building her brain. She was in the sweet spot. (Location 437) - For example, a golfer lining up a putt should tell herself, “Center the stroke,” not “Don’t pull this putt to the left.” A violinist faced with a difficult passage should tell himself, “Nail that A-flat,” not “Oh boy, I hope I don’t miss that A-flat.” Psychologists call this “positive framing,” and provide plentiful theories of how framing affects our subconscious mind. (Location 617) - This piece of advice comes from Dr. Douglas Fields, a neurologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, who researches memory and learning. He discovered that our brains make stronger connections when they’re stimulated three times with a rest period of ten minutes between each stimulation. The real-world translation: To learn something most effectively, practice it three times, with ten-minute breaks between each rep. “I apply this to learning all the time in my own life, and it works,” Fields says. “For example, in mastering a difficult piece of music on the guitar, I practice, then I do something else for ten minutes, then I practice again [and so on].” (Location 640) - This is a useful habit I’ve heard about from dozens of top performers, ranging from surgeons to athletes to comedians. Just before falling asleep, they play a movie of their idealized performance in their heads. A wide body of research supports this idea, linking visualization to improved performance, motivation, mental toughness, and confidence. Treat it as a way to rev the engine of your unconscious mind, so it spends more time churning toward your goals. (Location 711) - To avoid this, use language that is concrete and specific. For example:     • “Move your hands higher” is vague. “Move your hands next to your ear” is concrete.     • “Play the song a little faster” is vague. “Match the metronome” is concrete.     • “Please work more closely with the sales team” is vague. “Please check in with the sales (Location 745) - The solution is to create your own scorecard. Pick a metric that measures the skill you want to develop, and start keeping track of it. Use that measure to motivate and orient your learners. As a saying goes, “You are what you count.” (Location 757) - For example, I’ve encountered a number of top soccer, basketball, and hockey coaches who track the number of smart passes their team makes during a game, and who use this number—not the score—as the most accurate measure of their team’s success. The players catch on, and try to exceed themselves each game. Regardless of what happens on the scoreboard, this number gives them an accurate way to measure their real progress. (Location 759) - Recently, United Parcel Service was struggling with its driver-training program. Retention was down; injury and dissatisfaction were up. UPS responded with a novel program: It canceled classroom lectures and built a $34-million training center that resembled a small town, so the trainees could learn by doing. The trainees didn’t hear lectures about how to drive, stack, or deliver—they actually did it. To teach balance, UPS trainers secretly squirted soap on the floor and had trainees walk across it carrying a load of boxes. (The trainees were hooked up to safety harnesses, so they weren’t injured.) The program was a success; (Location 773) - Some progressive schools increase reachfulness through a technique called “flipping the classroom.” The term refers to changing the traditional model, in which students spend class time listening to a lecture and then do reinforcement work at home. In a flipped classroom, students do the reverse. They listen to lectures at home, online, and spend class time actively struggling with the work: doing problems, wrestling with concepts—in essence, reaching—while the teacher walks around, coach-style, and helps individuals one at a time. In a yearlong study of algebra students at one California high school, the flipped classroom scored 23 percent higher on tests than the conventional classroom. (Location 778) - Your long-term goal as a teacher, coach, or mentor is to help your learners improve so much that they no longer need you. To do this, avoid becoming the center of attention. Aim instead to create an environment where people can keep reaching on their own. Whenever possible, step away and create moments of independence. Think of your job as building a little master-coach chip in their brains—a tiny version of you, guiding them as they go forward. (Location 787) - Don’t get me wrong. Public competition is a great thing. It teaches invaluable lessons about teamwork, it helps build emotional control, and it’s fun. But it’s also, in many cases, a deeply inefficient way to improve skill. One solution to the problem is to make public performance a special occasion, not a routine. A five-to-one ratio of practice time to performance time is a good starting point; ten to one is even better. (Location 829) - A recent study at Massachusetts General Hospital showed that practicing meditation for twenty-seven minutes a day created lasting brain changes in (you guessed it) eight weeks. (Location 868) - Grit isn’t inborn. It’s developed, like a muscle, and that development starts with awareness. To take Duckworth’s test, do a computer search for “Grit Survey” (or go directly to www.​authentichappiness​.​sas.​upenn.​edu/​tests/​SameAnswers/​t.​aspx?​id=​1246). Take the test and use your score as a way to reflect on the role of this quality in your life. For instance, when you hit an obstacle, how do you react? Do you tend to focus on a long-term goal, or move from interest to interest? What are you seeking in the long run? Begin to pay attention to places in your life where you’ve got grit, and celebrate them in yourself and others. (Location 901)