Comments on: Becoming an Expert – Deliberate Practice Part 2

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:39:25 +0000

I’ve been a psychotherapist for 40 years. I’ve always believed all symptoms have an interpersonal or experiential basis. Each one therefore has a unique causation. My main aim as a therapist is to support/encourage the client to talk about unresolved experiences as only he can explain the origin of any problem. I believe that there is an accumulation of “intellectual memory” in the brain just as there is “muscle memory” for an athletic skill. I don’t think neuroscience has officially confirmed this. So every session has been an experience in deliberate practice. My primary goal is to understand what caused the client’s problems. Every time I interact with the client what I communicate is based on his last response and my accumulated experience, which speaks to me as a hunch, a feeling, a thought. I have never tried to understand a client in terms of a theory. If I suddenly lost access to my fund of experience, I would have to start over. I do have a Ph.D., but I do not consider myself to be particularly intellectually brilliant. I have published articles in major journals–just started a few years ago–and have received many compliments on their comprehensiveness, readability, and originality. My secret is that I persevere in writing them to the same degree I’ve done as a therapist. I continually re-read and re-write. I get my very best ideas, generated spontaneously, when in the act of writing because my intent is to explain a point as clearly as I can.

By: brad

brad — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 07:46:05 +0000

just read this now, great article. I was kinda disappointed because I was hoping you would cover some of your own background in how you became obsessed with exercise and nutrition, how these concepts related to your own learning and whether you think you have an innate ability to understand and convey these concepts, or just obsessed over them so much that you put in more practice than anyone else?

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:29:27 +0000

Talent is what motivates experts to improve.
Why not all people experts? because they choose the wrong field, and they get frustrated easy.
To be an Expert:
1- Find where your Talent’s field?
2- (Practice + Feedback + Correction) * 4 Hours/ Day

Thanks for excellent article.
Ahmed.

By: Ian Mellis

Ian Mellis — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:26:37 +0000

Excellent article, a really good mix of research and experience.

By: Jack

Jack — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:47:42 +0000

Lyle,

Do you see the Doublé technique often supported by Charles Poliquin as another method of use in neural and technique improvements? He’s spoken of performing a lift twice in a session, one at the start and once at a later point as beneficial in that you’re not only increasing exposure time to a lift and technique but also requiring the CNS to get back in the groove after the “break” between the same lift.

As always, thank you for such excellent coverage of topics like this. I truly appreciate what a phenomenal resource you are.

By: RG

RG — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:53:56 +0000

Follow up, because obviously this is an issue near and dear to my heart, you asked the question “people have been gym rats for 10 years, why aren’t they an expert yet” where I think the better question is “people have been gym rats for 10 years and their improvement leveled off 8 years ago, why are they still gym rats?” What I hate about the tenor of these arguments, which leads to the “anyone can be an expert”, is the ridiculous conclusion that you should keep pounding away. Would you say this to someone on a bad date: just keep dating them, it’ll get better in 5 years, or would you tell them to give it up and move on?

By: RG

RG — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:21:25 +0000

I loved the “rage to master” but it’s a chicken-egg issue. If you really suck at something, the rage diminishes. Passion plus discipline plus talent. I’ve operated at high level academic subject, working with the cream of the crop, and you learn your in-born limitations. There were people who succeeded more because they were worked harder, or had better support, and there were people who coasted on their talent. I also know my rage to master was diminished by being able to predict my path even if I gave it my all. Tenure at a top-tier university was never going to happen. I do think it’s important to understand that “naturals” exist, even at a really, really high level. I’m not saying they didn’t do any work, but there was no doubt that their brain worked better at the same questions and problems.

It depends, too, on what your goal is. Is your goal to contribute to your field in a meaningful way, or are you comfortable with being one of the many grunt workers in that field. I had a friend whose goal was to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem, and he was somewhat heartbroken when the announcement came out that Wiles had proven it. You can enjoy playing classical music and never make money at it, but if you don’t have the support to do it, then you’re going to have difficulty reaching your own maximum potential, chicken-egg. In biology, for example, being a lab worker is a very very different job from running a lab and designing experiments.

That’s at a very top level, distinguishing between “expert” and “world-class”, but this experience led me to believe that the issue of talent filters down. Also in teaching, from my young nieces/nephews to college-age, it’s not just a question of who is a “natural” at something, there’s a gradation of talent which is separate from passion, discipline, or background knowledge. I saw it within my specialty, that I and others were drawn to a particular sub-specialty even though we were all somewhat “expert”, our talents were pushing us in a specific direction. We saw the (rare) crossover of someone who could think in multiple fields, but even at that budding level it was usually clear where someone’s personality or talent would do them justice. Whether it’s genetic or environmental, by the time you’re 20 your talent is almost as rigid as personality.

By: Nick Andrade

Nick Andrade — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:16:34 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. Attaining expertise in anything requires dedication and sacrifice. In order to make this happen, you’ve got to completely buy in to the philosophy and give yourself over to the experience. You’ve gotta live it, love it and improve on it every single day. While I do believe that anyone can become an expert – I don’t believe that everyone is willing to do what it takes to make it happen.