Daniel Coyle's Blog, page 23

Learn Like a Baby

Several readers recently forwarded me this video. Not only because it's deadly cute (man oh man, is it ever), but also because it provides valuable insights into increasing our learning velocity. There's more learning per second going on here than almost anything I've ever come across.

On the surface, Li'l Edward tumbles around like a dervish, creating a perfect chaos. Beneath that chaos, however, there's a pattern worth noting — a clinic on how our brains learn best and fastest. Since after a...

The Power of Play: 3 Tips

I spent last week at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, giving a few talks. It was big fun on a lot of levels. For one, the Olympic team is in good hands–as proven by the medal-haul of Vancouver. For another, the coaches are a friendly, hard-working, and deeply knowledgeable bunch. (The cafeteria food's not too bad, either.)

The big surprise of my visit was this: most Olympic coaches want to coach their athletes less. A lot less. They want fewer structured drills, and more i...

How to Read

We all know that world-class writers write differently from the rest of us. What I didn't know — at least until recently — was how differently some of them read.

Check out these links to the private books of two pretty fair writers: Mark Twain and David Foster Wallace. They're worth exploring, because 1) it's as thrillingly close as you'll get to the engine room of their minds; and 2) because they provide a vivid (and for me, utterly humbling) lesson on how to truly read.

For most of us...

The Uses of Madness

When I was in grade school, my ironclad bedtime routine included setting out the next day's clothing. I didn't fold the clothes, but laid them carefully on the floor exactly as I would put them on: pants next to socks, socks next to shoes, and so on.  An unsuspecting passer-by would assume either 1) a small child had suddenly evaporated; 2) I was maybe a bit obsessive/compulsive.

The link between talent and neural disorders is fascinating. The list of world-class performers who have been...

The Rule of Limits

I love this video, first because of the kid's uncanny resemblance to Young Forrest Gump. Second, because of the reaction of the other kids  – they're stunned, thrilled, and ignited by his performance. (If he can do it, why can't I?)

But the main reason is that it holds a useful strategic lesson. This kid has memorized a massively impressive number by breaking it down in three- and four-number chunks — and then linked those into larger chunks (check out the pauses as he moves from one string...

What Shape is Your Talent?

Spiderweb? Loop? Or Funnel?

Let me back up a second and start with a simple idea: Skills are really circuits in your brain.

I think this is a cool and useful idea, first because our brains are plastic and changeable. And second, because it leads us somewhere even cooler and more useful. Shapes.

All neural circuits have shapes. In fact, I'd like to assert that those shapes come in three basic types, into which pretty much every talent in the world can be sorted, and which might hold important...

Yo-Yo Ma to the Rescue

Yo-Yo and Aidan

Returning from a spring break trip to Montana, my 14-year-old son Aidan and I were minding our own business, walking among the weary hordes of travelers at the Chicago airport. Then we noticed a slight commotion twenty feet ahead of us. A middle-aged woman had accidentally dropped her boarding pass, but since she wore an iPod, she was unable to hear the voices of people calling out. So the woman strode  briskly on, unaware.

Behind her, about a dozen people were doing what...

The Importance of Being Unpredictable

This time of year our family happily geeks out on the Iditarod, that legendary 1,049-mile sled dog race from Willow to Nome. We tape a map on the fridge and follow our favorites — Lance Mackey, Ally Zirkle, our old neighbor Jim Lanier, and, this year, Jamaica's own cool-runner Newton Marshall.

This year's race has been completely great, with what looks to be a familiar ending. As of today, Mackey looks like he's set to win for a record fourth-straight time.

The interesting question is, how...

The 3 Traits of Great Teachers

What makes certain teachers so magical? What qualities should we look for, and what ones should we ignore?

In the last month we've seen a provocative new wave of reporting and research on that old and important mystery, from Elizabeth Bennett (New York Times Magazine), Amanda Ripley (Atlantic), and two terrific new books, Teaching as Leadership, by Steven Farr, and Teach Like a Champion, by Doug Lemov.

You should check out the stories and accompanying videos for yourself, but here's the key...

And the Oscar Goes to…

Ah, Oscar Week. Over the next six days we'll witness people praising the visionary talent of best-director co-favorites James Cameron ("Avatar") and Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker"). We'll hear about Cameron and Bigelow's amazing skills: their unerring sense of story, their painterly eye, their supreme knack for framing an unforgettable story. Over and over, we will hear them be described as geniuses.

There's just one major issue we won't hear about: how did they get so good?

The surprising ...