More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
there’s no such thing as a predefined ability.
Learning isn’t a way of reaching one’s potential but rather a way of developing it. We can create our own potential.
The right sort of practice carried out over a sufficient period of time leads to improvement. Nothing else.
Generally the solution is not “try harder” but rather “try differently.”
In all of my years of research, I have found it is surprisingly rare to get clear evidence in any field that a person has reached some immutable limit on performance. Instead, I’ve found that people more often just give up and stop trying to improve.
In pretty much any area of human endeavor, people have a tremendous capacity to improve their performance, as long as they train in the right way.
If you are not improving, it’s not because you lack innate talent; it’s because you’re not practicing the right way.
if your mind is wandering or you’re relaxed and just having fun, you probably won’t improve.
Researchers who have studied long-distance runners have found that amateurs tend to daydream or think about more pleasant subjects to take their minds off the pain and strain of their running, while elite long-distance runners remain attuned to their bodies so that they can find the optimal pace and make adjustments to maintain the best pace throughout the whole race.
This is the dark side of believing in innate talent. It can beget a tendency to assume that some people have a talent for something and others don’t and that you can tell the difference early on.
