K. Anders Ericsson
Professor of Psychology, Florida State University
Ericsson has spent 25 years interviewing and analyzing high-flying professionals. He’s the coeditor of the recent 918-page book Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2006), in which he says elite performers aren’t genetically superior. They just do things differently. He can explain in less than 900 pages, so we asked him to.
Is talent overrated?
“The traditional assumption is that people come into a professional domain, have similar experiences, and the only thing that’s different is their innate abilities. There’s little evidence to support this. With the exception of some sports, no characteristic of the brain or body constrains an individual from reaching an expert level.”
What do you have to do to become the best?
“Successful people spontaneously do things differently from those individuals who stagnate. They have different practice histories. Elite performers engage in what we call “deliberate practice”–an effortful activity designed to improve individual target performance. There has to be some way they’re innovating in the way they do things.”
