The Expert Mind

Vicissidude writes "Teachers in sports, music, and other fields tend to believe that talent matters and that they know it when they see it. In fact, they appear to be confusing ability with precocity. There is usually no way to tell, from a recital alone, whether a young violinist's extraordinary performance stems from innate ability or from years of Suzuki-style training. The preponderance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born. In fact, it takes approximately a decade of heavy labor to master any field. Even child prodigies, such as Gauss in mathematics, Mozart in music, and Bobby Fischer in chess, must have made an equivalent effort, perhaps by starting earlier and working harder than others. It is no coincidence that the incidence of chess prodigies multiplied after László Polgár published a book on chess education. The number of musical prodigies underwent a similar increase after Mozart's father did the equivalent two centuries earlier."

Comments

What about things that can't be taught?

[Zadaz]

Question: If I learn the rules of baseball until I can chant them in my sleep, including the current stats on all current players and teams, what is my skill on the field?

Answer: Who the hell knows.

Or how about creative expression? How many years do I have to study Picasso to become a leading force in a revolutionary new art movement?

What about personality? How long do I have to intern with Bill Gates to become a billionaire?

Using chess is an awful example because it's a small closed system with a simple set of rules. Skills for chess are roughly in the same category as "factory worker" where if you push button A it does thing B.