Peak Ch. 6 Flashcards
the Dan Plan
Dan McLaughlin quit his day job at age 30 and developed the Dan Plan, the use of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert golf player
who is deliberate practice for?
anyone who dreams
the first step for anyone who wants to engage in deliberate practice
have an experienced teacher watch you and provide feedback
what is the most important thing a teacher can do?
help you develop your mental representations so that you can monitor and correct your performance
tips for finding a good teacher:
- Find someone who is well-accomplished in the field
- Find someone with some skill and experience in teaching in that field
- Keep in mind that online ratings are subjective
- Ask a prospective teacher about practice exercises
- Remember that you may have to change teachers as you change
the importance of engagement
Engagement is a critical aspect of deliberate practice that benefits from one-on-one instruction
focus and improvement
- Focus is key to improvement
- If your mind is wandering or you’re relaxed, you probably won’t improve
joy in amateur vs. professional singers study
- A Swedish study found that both amateur and professional singers felt relaxed and energized after a singing lesson but only the amateurs felt elated
- For professionals, the lesson was more about concentration than joy
Chambliss swimming study
concluded that the key to excellence in swimming involves paying close attention to every detail of performance
focus in expert runners study
Researchers have found that long-distance amateur runners tend to daydream to take their minds off of the pain, while experts remain attuned to their bodies
what is the best way to develop new skills faster?
Shorter training sessions with clearer goals
how should you proceed if you don’t have access to a teacher?
You should come up with your feedback-driven exercises
3Fs of practicing a skill without a teacher
Focus
Feedback
Fix it
ESL students and developing comprehension study
ESL students at Florida State University improved quicker by asking native speakers the same questions over and over again than asking different questions because the repetition helped them understand the words better and test their comprehension
successful mental representations are tied to ____
thoughts
prevalence of plateaus
Plateaus are common in any sort of training
what is the best way to move beyond a plateau?
- The best way to move beyond a plateau is to challenge your brain or body in a new way
- This usually involves pushing yourself a little harder than usual to identify what your weaknesses are and working to address those weaknesses
typing teachers and helping students get past a plateau study
they encourage them to increase their typing speed, which has two clear functions
two functions of increasing one’s typing speed
- It helps them spot challenges
- It forces them to look at upcoming letters
do experts like practicing?
Many experts report not liking practicing (ex. Spelling bee champions)
problems with the notion of willpower
- It is very situation-specific
- It, along with natural talent, is ascribed to people after the fact
- There is an underlying assumption that it is innate
two factors involved in maintaining motivation
- Reasons to stop
- Reasons to keep going
what is key to keeping yourself going?
minimizing distractions
what two things can help you maintain your focus?
- General physical maintenance
- Limit the length of your practice sessions to about 1 hour (it becomes difficult to maintain concentration for much longer than that)
can a skill be inherently motivating?
Once you have practiced for a while and start to see results, the skill itself can become part of your motivation
believing you can succeed and success
A belief that you can succeed is important for your success
what type of a motivator is a social motivation?
extrinsic motivation
two common forms of social motivation
- Approval/admiration (usually for younger kids)
- Positive feedback (usually for older kids)
how can you sustain your social motivation?
by surrounding yourself with supportive people
when is it easier to sustain social motivation?
for activities done in teams or groups
what is needed for supportive people to enhance social motivation?
Other members of the group must have similar goals for improvement
importance of concrete improvement
Setting things up so that you are always seeing concrete improvement can help keep you motivated
how much time should people who hope to become experts dedicate to deliberate practice per day?
Anyone who hopes to improve their skill in a particular area should devote an hour or more each day to practice which can be done with full concentration
example of feedback-driven exercises
Benjamin Franklin used exercises that focused on particular facets of his writing to help him build more effective mental representations of good writing and improve
example of a skill being inherently motivating
Gunder Hagg, a famous middle-distance runner, had his father time him when he was in his early teen years. His father lied about his time and said that it was faster than it was, which helped encourage him to keep going
believing you can succeed and success study
Benjamin Bloom found that many injured youth athletes wanted to quit, but if they kept going until they reached their previous level of performance, they would no longer want to quit
example of sustaining your social motivation
Benjamin Franklin’s Junto club, which helped members motivate themselves to engage in intellectual topics
