Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise Paperback – 11 April 2017

Many books have been based on Dr. Ericsson’s lifetime of research on expertise (like Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers), but these books have missed the key nuances or highlight only some parts of his research. So it’s great to have a comprehensive and an accessible book from Dr. Ericsson and Pool (If you want to dive into his research read “The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance”)Dr. Ericsson deconstructs the actions that need to be taken to go from average to a legend (like Mozart, Michael Jordon). He starts by asserting that we all have the same “gift” – the adaptability of the human brain and body. What separates the expert from the average Joe is that the expert takes advantage of this adaptability through deliberate practice.The first part of the book describes what deliberate practice is, and how experts apply it to produce their extraordinary abilities. He provides several insights in this section – effective practice increases your ability (as opposed to - you are born with certain abilities and that they are static), developing your ability makes things that was not possible – possible, you cannot train to acquire general skills – you have to train to develop highly specific skills, and that the quality and quantity of mental representation of a skill differentiates an expert.The second part of the book describes how you can apply deliberate practice to get better in your area of interest. While practicing a skill keep in mind the 3 Fs: Focus, feedback, and fix it. The purpose of practice is to identify your weaknesses by pushing yourself well outside your comfort zone, which leads to your focus areas. Then you break it down to manageable well specified skills and work on it one by one (in the right sequence) and use feedback to monitor your progress. While working on your focus area you are likely to hit a plateau – the key to overcoming this is to experiment with different methods to improve until you find something that works.Dr. Ericsson describes the four stages in the development of expertise in children. Stage 1 (nurturing interest): parents can nurture interest in a specific skill by providing time, attention, and encouragement. Stage 2 (become serious): help them develop routines, provide support, and encourage and praise them for their improvements. Stage 3 (commitment): provide opportunity to learn from the best, while continuing to provide support. Stage 4 (break new ground): make unique creative contribution to the fieldDr. Ericsson ends the book by answering the question – “What is the role of innate characteristics like IQ?” – it does provide an advantage when first learning a skill, but experts beat this advantage by the quality and amount of their practice.Chase your dreams to make them a reality through deliberate practice.

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Best book for expertise in anything or any field.But for curious people like me who are not expert in anything there's hope. Recent studies, books like Range and prediction for the Future of Work favors Generalists over Specialists.

good one - Deliberate practice. The original author of 10k hours, tell you about the value of deliberate practice and to align it with your best time of the day, generally the moment you wake up. He tells you that even the most talented people, who simply seems to be endowed with a lot of skill actually have worked harder than their peers. The secret to greatness is hard work and zero distraction.

If you are ever on turn to start to start learning sonthing new, gain some new skills or want to re-develop your life. Then this book is the first you'll need to read.With content compiling the concluaions drawn from years of research on expert performance and the way an expert mind works, its a book for everyone who wishes to reach the peak of his/her field.

Great Book! Surprised how an imported edge have always been missing from whatever i was spending time on!Must Read for all who tend to grow and grow fast!

Eye opener book to expand knowledge

The book highlighted the importance of purposeful practice or deliberate practice to master in any pursuit. Our belief creates a mental representation of the situation or task which we can pursue through deliberate practice to become an expert in the chosen field.Motivation and persistence are required to make deliberate practice incessantly. The author established the fact that "a genius is not born but it is nurtured". With a planned strategy to train a child in any pursuit can make him/her master or expert in that pursuit within a reasonable time. The key point is to start practicing from the early childhood which is the potential period to create genuine interest in any pursuit. A useful book for the parents and guardians to make use of the principles elaborated throughout the book to get a first-hand result by themselves.