Having said that, I don't totally disregard Bounce, Outliers and those theories of practice. I just think it's ludicrous to say that "practice is sufficient". And that's the crux. It's not about dismissing the role of practice, it's about asking the right question. And it's pretty crazy to ask "Is practice important?" That's obvious, particularly at the elite level. And if you read Bounce and Outliers, then you'll see that they argue this - their position is that practice will get anyone to the level of the best performers. Can't be true.
So basically, I'm just calling for moderation, a more balanced view. There's not a decent physiologist in the world who would argue that it's ONLY genes, so why argue that it's ONLY practice. In fact, I have data from research that shows that practice is very poor at explaining performance, that if anything, practice is less important than some other, unmeasurable factors.
I'm getting into the details, and as I said, I'll get this done as a proper series, but the bottom line is that it must be both - you must be born with the right genes, then train in the right environment. Gladwell and co are addressing only the latter part, and sure, it's important and helpful, but it's also wrong to be exclusive...
Having said that, I don't totally disregard Bounce, Outliers and those theories of practice. I just think it's ludicrous to say that "practice is sufficient". And that's the crux. It's not about dismissing the role of practice, it's about asking the right question. And it's pretty crazy to ask "Is practice important?" That's obvious, particularly at the elite level. And if you read Bounce and Outliers, then you'll see that they argue this - their position is that practice will get anyone to the level of the best performers. Can't be true.
So basically, I'm just calling for moderation, a more balanced view. There's not a decent physiologist in the world who would argue that it's ONLY genes, so why argue that it's ONLY practice. In fact, I have data from research that shows that practice is very poor at explaining performance, that if anything, practice is less important than some other, unmeasurable factors.
I'm getting into the details, and as I said, I'll get this done as a proper series, but the bottom line is that it must be both - you must be born with the right genes, then train in the right environment. Gladwell and co are addressing only the latter part, and sure, it's important and helpful, but it's also wrong to be exclusive...