“Practice, Practice, Practice” is not correct

This is a note of what I learnt from the course Good with Words.

Anders Ericsson, whose research leads to the 10,000 hours rule, clarified that 10,000 hours rule is not a correct abstraction of his research. “Practice, Practice, Practice” is also not correct.

The real key is not how long you practice, but how you practice

“The right sort of practice(“deliberate practice”) carries out over a sufficient period of time leads to improvement. Nothing else.”

Deliberate practice

• develop skills that other people have already figured out how to do and for which effective training techniques have been established.
  • writing is one of them!
  • we are not the first one trying to get better at it
• the practice regimen should be designed and overseen by a teacher or a coach who is familiar with the abilities of expect performers.
• takes place outside one’s comfort zone and requires a student to constantly try things that are just beyond their current abilities.
  • Thus it demands near-maximal effort, which is generally not enjoyable
  • it is not always fun, but it can be very, very effective

In this course, and the weeks, months, years after it Willing to push yourself Willing to travel outside comfort zone consistently give near-max effort