Peak: Your guide to getting better at anything

Best book I have read in a while. Wish I had read it sooner in my life - especially when I was at university. Highly recommend

I've read quite a few books similar such as 12 week year, atomic habits etc. those all pretty much say same thing (wake up early, get the work done blah blah). But with this book you actually walk away feeling like you learned something new to apply to your life and practical advice on how to implement it. If you're a coach/parent too I'd highly recommend picking this up to set your children/students up for the future

Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool present a very accessible summary of the former’s work with elite performers in various disciplines with lessons for those of us with more moderate ambitions. First the bad news, if you are trying to acquire expertise then there is no silver bullet substitute for time spent at the coal face. The authors debunk the myth of the effortless virtuoso performance - beneath the surface the swan has paddled like crazy to get there. But the other side of that coin is that lack of 'innate' ability is no bar to moderate or better skills acquisition in many disciplines. Assuming de minimis mental and physical attributes then practice will make perfect, or at least half decent. But what kind of practice? The authors correct Malcolm Gladwell’s much quoted but erroneous interpretation of their work in his book ‘Outliers’ which suggested that simply 10,000 hours of ‘naive’ practice would secure top billing at Shea Stadium. Their prescription is ‘deliberate practice’ which is focused effort, guided by an appropriate coach, progressively challenging yourself out of your comfort zone. ‘potential is an expandable vessel….Learning isn’t a way of reaching one’s potential but rather a way of developing it’. Measurement, goals and feedback are vital. The ‘Top Gun’ method of close to the limit simulation followed by debrief is presented as another example of this process. Mental representations, the ability to recognise patterns and spot when something is out of sync are crucial. But they aren’t created just by repetitive practice at the same level. Hence the comment above, that top chess players spend a significant amount of time not playing but studying chess problems from the grandmasters's classic encounters….re-creating their decision making. I have always held that to be true in the similarly cerebral game of Bridge…the best players have the best memories to spot hands they or others have played before. I was intrigued to learn that IQ seems not to correlate with peak performance…that high IQ might be useful for ease of uptake, but quickly the slow starters recognise that practice is their golden ticket and ultimately it is the power of practice that wins through. That doesn’t square with my reading elsewhere that IQ trumps practice. Certainly I would intuitively expect that if you are blessed with high IQ, high commitment and the magic formula of deliberate practice then you would be benefitting from a force multiplying effect. I need to dig some more on this. I was also intrigued to hear that effort was discipline specific…practice in one sphere bestows no particular advantage in another….which begs the question how useful it is for anyone to memorise 400 digit numbers. I am just starting to read about fluid and crystallised intelligence, so once again…more research necessary. In the second half of the book the relevance for more routine skills like education and management are explored and the authors recognise that this is where the real potential of their thinking lies. They suggest baking ‘deliberate practice’ into the routine of work experiences such as meetings and presentations. They also give a taster of some dramatic results in the teaching of physics. This book whets the appetite - there are surely many more wide-ranging applications ahead. With the challenge of the digital transformation and the need to acquire new skills in a variety of disciplines quickly and efficiently, and the possibility of on line and ‘smart’ learning delivery mechanisms, working out a way of packaging progressive, deliberate practice which focuses on demonstrable skills has real resonance.

If you want to learn how to become better at what you do or anything at all, then this is the book for you. The summary of the book is that everyone has the ability to become really good at what they do. Whether you want to become a chess grandmaster, a dancer, a doctor, engineer etc, you can! there are just a few ingredients 1. Do deliberate practice. Learn the best possible way to get better at what you do. Ideally learn 1 on 1 where you can focus to Improve and learn from the best. Make sure to get feedback. Do, learn, fail, rinse, repeat, succeed eventually. 2. Practice practice practice. This will help build mental representations to improve what you do. Studies have shown that the more hours someone puts into getting better, the better they become. So someone that has practiced 2000 hours will most likely be better than someone who has practiced 200. But the key is deliberate practice. So practice in a way to improve and push yourself beyond your comfort zone. I've learned an incredible amount from reading this book and it has left me believing I can get better and do anything.

As a parent and a sports coach, this book is a great reference and an excellent tool, as it proves that anyone can achieve anything they set out to do, it completely disproves the "natural talent" belief that we have all been lead to believe, which apparently seperates the most successful people from the rest. Ultimately, with the right mindset and using the principles of deliberate practice, anyone can become an expert in whatever field they desire.

Good book, well written. I have spent a lifetime instructing people in various physical activities as well as keeping to a high lifelong level of fitness myself. I have used most if not all of the techniques discussed. They work and are very effective. All you have to do is apply those principles to your objective, physical or mental or both. You will not necessarily become the best in the world at what you want to do but with effort you could achieve your potential. No matter how old you are. Knowledge, application, result. This book could help you get there.

This book is useful. It introduces the idea of deliberate practise and explains it thoroughly. Unfortunately I found the book slightly boring but explained the concept well and is incredibly useful for improving at any skill. I love a step by step formula and although this isn't that, it is a well explained way to improve at any skill

We have all heard by now that 10,000 hours of practice will allow you to master any art or profession. But the authors of this book point out that, unless that practice is deliberate, tailored to your needs, they will be so much wasted time. Drawing on research, some carried out by Ericsson himself, the book teaches how to spend those hours in deliberate practice, tailored to actually build the skills and mental representations that will create the abilities you desire. They apply this to people of all ages and across a wide variety of fields, from music to sport to business, so an understanding of the principles can be applied to whatever you pursue. A truly optimistic book that gives you the tools you need to make those thousands of hours of hard graft needed to achieve your dreams effective and highly gratifying.

Great info - worth the pages

Incredible book teaching the skills it takes to master any skill. Would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better themselves in at least one area of their life.

Buen libro, bien documentado, con un mensaje elaborado de que hace más quién quiere que quien puede. Explica porque algunas personas mejoran continuamente y llegan a ser los mejores, sin que tengamñn mejores condiciones innatas.

The perception of humans being born with more 'talent' than others are put to bed in this book. The author/s open up our eyes to what can be acheived in skill development in all areas of our lives if we focus on deliberate and specific skill development. As an aspiring programmer, often trying to fasttrack my skill development, I have learnt now to focus on building programming skills by going back to basics and honing those skills in order to be a better developer down the line. I would say that if you are a parent and want your children to succeed and perform at a top level in academia, sport or music, this book worth a read. However, anyone looking to increase skills or performance on any subject, follow the advice in this book. Take control of your life, education, finances or career through puposeful skill and habit development.

This book has a compilation of research works. The structure of of the book is quite smooth which gives readers a comfort of reading.