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Start giftingPeak
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Learn moreMozart wasn’t born with perfect pitch.
Most athletes are not born with any natural advantage.
Three world-class chess players were sisters, whose success was planned by their parents before they were even born.
Anders Ericsson has spent thirty years studying The Special Ones, the geniuses, sports stars and musical prodigies. And his remarkable finding, revealed in Peak, is that their special abilities are acquired through training. The innate ‘gift’ of talent is a myth. Exceptional individuals are born with just one unique ability, shared by us all – the ability to develop our brains and bodies through our own efforts.
Anders Ericsson’s research was the inspiration for the popular ‘10,000-hour rule’ but, he tells us, this rule is only the beginning of the story. It’s not just the hours that are important but how you use them. We all have the seeds of excellence within us – it’s merely a question of how to make them grow. With a bit of guidance, you’ll be amazed at what the average person can achieve.
The astonishing stories in Peak prove that potential is what you make it.
Professor Anders Ericsson is the world’s reigning expert on expertise. His research into what makes ordinary people achieve the extraordinary was the inspiration for the 10,000-hours rule – the popular theory that 10,000 hours of any type of practice will allow an individual to excel in any field. In this book, he describes how a particular type of extended practice leads to exceptional performance.
Anders Ericsson began his research into expertise when he conducted a memory trial on a young man. Despite having no previous aptitude for memory exercises, after several hundred sessions the young man was displaying memory powers over 10 times that of an average person. This was as a result of the system of training Ericsson had put him through – a process Ericsson has named ‘deliberate practice’.
Professor Ericsson has gone on to have his research widely cited in major newspapers and magazines worldwide, and he has worked with major international organisations, as well as Oxford, Stanford and Harvard medical schools, teachers and educational researchers, professional sports teams (Manchester City Football Club, Saracens Rugby Union Club, UK Sport, England and Wales Cricket Board), and military groups.
Robert Pool is a science writer who has worked at some of the world’s most prestigious science publications, including Science and Nature, and his writing has appeared in many others. He is the author of three previous books.