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ALSOBYDANIELCOYLE

Hardball:ASeasonintheProjectsWakingSamuel

LanceArmstrong'sWar


ForJen


Contents

Introduction

PARTI.DeepPracticeChapter1:TheSweetSpotChapter2:TheDeepPracticeCellChapter3:TheBrontës,theZ-Boys,andtheRenaissanceChapter4:TheThreeRulesofDeepPractice

PARTII.IgnitionChapter5:PrimalCuesChapter6:TheCuraçaoExperimentChapter7:HowtoIgniteaHotbed

PartIII.MasterCoachingChapter8:TheTalentWhisperersChapter9:TheTeachingCircuit:ABlueprintChapter10:TomMartinezandthe$60MillionBet

Epilogue:TheMyelinWorldNotesonSourcesAcknowledgments


Then [David] took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from thestream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and,with his sling in hishand,approachedGoliath.

—1Samuel17:40


Introduction

THEGIRLWHODIDAMONTH'SWORTHOFPRACTICEINSIXMINUTES

Everyjourneybeginswithquestions,andherearethree:Howdoes apennilessRussian tennis clubwithone indoor court createmore top-twenty

womenplayersthantheentireUnitedStates?Howdoes a humble storefrontmusic school inDallas, Texas, produce Jessica Simpson,

DemiLovato,andasuccessionofpopmusicphenoms?Howdoesapoor,scantilyeducatedBritishfamilyinaremotevillageturnoutthreeworld-

classwriters?Talenthotbedsaremysteriousplaces,andthemostmysteriousthingaboutthemisthatthey

bloom without warning. The first baseball players from the tiny island of the DominicanRepublic arrived in themajor leagues in the 1950s; they now account for one in nine big-league players. The first South Korean woman golfer won a Ladies Professional GolfAssociation (LPGA) tournament in 1998; now there are forty-five on the LPGA Tour,includingeightofthetoptwentymoneywinners.In1991therewasonlyoneChineseentryintheVanCliburnpianocompetition;themostrecentcompetitionfeaturedeight,aproportionalleapreflectedintopsymphonyorchestrasaroundtheworld.

Mediacoveragetendstotreateachhotbedasasingularphenomenon,butintruththeyareall part of a larger, older pattern.Consider the composersof nineteenth-centuryVienna, thewritersofShakespeareanEngland,ortheartistsoftheItalianRenaissance,duringwhichthesleepycityofFlorence,population70,000,suddenlyproducedanexplosionofgeniusthathasneverbeenseenbeforeorsince. Ineachcase, the identicalquestionsecho:Wheredoes thisextraordinarytalentcomefrom?Howdoesitgrow?

Theanswercouldbeginwitharemarkablepieceofvideoshowingafreckle-facedthirteen-year-oldgirlnamedClarissa.Clarissa (nother realname)waspartofa studybyAustralianmusic psychologists GaryMcPherson and James Renwick that tracked her progress at theclarinetforseveralyears.Officially,thevideo'stitleisshorterclarissa3.mov,butitshouldhavebeencalledTheGirlWhoDidaMonth'sWorthofPracticeinSixMinutes.

Onscreen,Clarissadoesnotlookparticularlytalented.Shewearsabluehoodedsweatshirt,gymshorts,andanexpressionofsleepyindifference.Infact,untilthesixminutescapturedonthe video, Clarissa had been classified as amusicalmediocrity. According toMcPherson'saptitudetestsandthetestimonyofherteacher,herparents,andherself,Clarissapossessednomusicalgifts.Shelackedagoodear;hersenseofrhythmwasaverage,hermotivationsubpar.(Inthestudy'swrittensection,shemarked“becauseI'msupposedto”asherstrongestreasonforpracticing.)Nonetheless,Clarissahadbecomefamousinmusic-sciencecircles.BecauseonanaveragemorningMcPherson'scameracapturedthisaveragekiddoingsomethingdistinctlyun-average.Infiveminutesandfifty-fourseconds,sheacceleratedherlearningspeedbytentimes,accordingtoMcPherson'scalculations.Whatwasmore,shedidn'tevennotice.

McPhersonsetsup theclip forus: It'smorning,Clarissa'scustomary timeforpractice,adayafterherweeklylesson.Sheisworkingonanewsongentitled“GoldenWedding,”a1941tuneby jazzclarinetistWoodyHerman.She's listened to thesonga few times.She likes it.Nowshe'sgoingtotrytoplayit.


http://shorterclarissa3.mov

Clarissadrawsabreathandplaystwonotes.Thenshestops.Shepullstheclarinetfromherlipsandstaresatthepaper.Hereyesnarrow.Sheplayssevennotes,thesong'sopeningphrase.Shemisses the lastnoteandimmediatelystops,fairly jerkingtheclarinetfromher lips.Shesquintsagainatthemusicandsingsthephrasesoftly.“Dahdahdumdah,”shesays.

Shestartsoverandplaystherifffromthebeginning,makingitafewnotesfartherintothesong this time, missing the last note, backtracking, patching in the fix. The opening isbeginningtosnaptogether—thenoteshaveverveandfeeling.Whenshe'sfinishedwith thisphrase, shestopsagain forsix longseconds, seeming to replay it inhermind, fingering theclarinetasshethinks.Sheleansforward,takesabreath,andstartsagain.

It sounds pretty bad. It's notmusic; it's a broken-up, fitful, slow-motion batch of notesriddledwithstopsandmisses.CommonsensewouldleadustobelievethatClarissaisfailing.Butinthiscasecommonsensewouldbedeadwrong.

“This is amazing stuff,” McPherson says. “Every time I watch this, I see new things,incredibly subtle, powerful things. This is how a professional musician would practice onWednesdayforaSaturdayperformance.”

On screen Clarissa leans into the sheet music, puzzling out a G-sharp that she's neverplayedbefore.Shelooksatherhand,thenatthemusic,thenatherhandagain.Shehumstheriff.Clarissa'spostureistiltedforward;shelooksasthoughsheiswalkingintoachillywind;her sweetly freckled face tightens intoa squint.Sheplays thephraseagainandagain.Eachtimesheaddsalayerofspirit,rhythm,swing.

“Look at that!” McPherson says. “She's got a blueprint in her mind she's constantlycomparingherselfto.She'sworkinginphrases,completethoughts.She'snotignoringerrors,she'shearing them,fixing them.She's fittingsmallparts into thewhole,drawing the lens inandoutallthetime,scaffoldingherselftoahigherlevel.”

This is not ordinary practice. This is something else: a highly targeted, error-focusedprocess. Something is growing, being built.The songbegins to emerge, andwith it, a newqualitywithinClarissa.

Thevideorollson.Afterpracticing“GoldenWedding,”Clarissagoeson toworkonhernextpiece,“TheBlueDanube.”Butthistimesheplaysitinonego,withoutstopping.Absentofjarringstops,thetunetumblesoutintuneful,recognizableform,albeitwiththeoccasionalsqueak.

McPherson groans. “She just plays it, like she's on a moving sidewalk,” he says. “It'scompletelyawful.She'snot thinking,not learning,notbuilding, justwasting time.Shegoesfromworsethannormaltobrilliantandthenbackagain,andshehasnoideashe'sdoingit.”

After a few moments McPherson can't take it anymore. He rewinds to watch Clarissapractice“GoldenWedding”again.HewantstowatchitforthesamereasonIdo.Thisisnotapictureoftalentcreatedbygenes; it'ssomethingfarmoreinteresting.It issixminutesofanaverage person entering amagically productive zone, onewheremore skill is createdwitheachpassingsecond.

“Good God,” McPherson says wistfully. “If somebody could bottle this, it'd be worthmillions.”

Thisbookisaboutasimpleidea:Clarissaandthetalenthotbedsaredoingthesamething.Theyhavetappedintoaneurologicalmechanisminwhichcertainpatternsoftargetedpracticebuildskill.Withoutrealizingit,theyhaveenteredazoneofacceleratedlearningthat,whileitcan'tquitebebottled,canbeaccessedbythosewhoknowhow.Inshort,they'vecrackedthetalentcode.

Thetalentcodeisbuiltonrevolutionaryscientificdiscoveriesinvolvinganeuralinsulatorcalledmyelin,whichsomeneurologistsnowconsider tobe theholygrailofacquiringskill.


Here'swhy.Everyhuman skill,whether it's playingbaseball orplayingBach, is createdbychainsofnervefiberscarryingatinyelectricalimpulse—basically,asignaltravelingthroughacircuit.Myelin'svital role is towrap thosenerve fibers thesameway that rubber insulationwraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electricalimpulses from leaking out.Whenwe fire our circuits in the right way—whenwe practiceswingingthatbatorplayingthatnote—ourmyelinrespondsbywrappinglayersofinsulationaroundthatneuralcircuit,eachnewlayeraddingabitmoreskillandspeed.Thethickerthemyelin gets, the better it insulates, and the faster and more accurate our movements andthoughtsbecome.

Myelinisimportantforseveralreasons.It'suniversal:everyonecangrowit,mostswiftlyduringchildhoodbutalsothroughoutlife.It'sindiscriminate:itsgrowthenablesallmannerofskills,mentalandphysical. It's imperceptible:wecan'tsee itorfeel it,andwecansense itsincrease only by its magical-seeming effects. Most of all, however, myelin is importantbecause it provides us with a vivid new model for understanding skill. Skill is a cellularinsulationthatwrapsneuralcircuitsandthatgrowsinresponsetocertainsignals.Themoretimeandenergyyouput into the rightkindofpractice—the longeryoustay in theClarissazone, firing the right signals through your circuits—the more skill you get, or, to put it aslightlydifferentway,themoremyelinyouearn.Allskillacquisitions,andthereforealltalenthotbeds,operateonthesameprinciplesofaction,nomatterhowdifferenttheymayappeartous.AsDr.GeorgeBartzokis,aUCLAneurologistandmyelinresearcher,putit,“Allskills,alllanguage,allmusic,allmovements,aremadeoflivingcircuits,andallcircuitsgrowaccordingtocertainrules.”

In the coming pages we'll see those rules in action by visiting the world's best soccerplayers,bankrobbers,violinists,fighterpilots,artists,andskateboarders.We'llexploresomesurprising talent hotbeds that are succeeding for reasons that even their inhabitants cannotguess.We'llmeetanassortmentofscientists,coaches,teachers,andtalentresearcherswhoarediscoveringnewtoolsforacquiringskill.Aboveall,we'llexplorespecificwaysinwhichthesetoolscanmakeadifferenceinmaximizingthepotentialinourownlivesandthelivesofthosearoundus.

Theideathatallskillsgrowbythesamecellularmechanismseemsstrangeandsurprisingbecausetheskillsaresodazzlinglyvaried.Butthenagain,allofthisplanet'svarietyisbuiltfrom shared, adaptivemechanisms; evolution could have it no otherway. Redwoods differfromrosesbutbothgrowthroughphotosynthesis.Elephantsdifferfromamoebasbutbothusethesamecellularmechanismtoconvertfoodintoenergy.Tennisplayers,singers,andpaintersdon'tseemtohavemuchincommonbuttheyallgetbetterbygraduallyimprovingtimingandspeed and accuracy, by honing neural circuitry, by obeying the rules of the talent code—inshort,bygrowingmoremyelin.

Thisbookisdividedintothreeparts—deeppractice,ignition,andmastercoaching—whichcorrespondtothethreebasicelementsofthetalentcode.Eachelementisusefulonitsown,but their convergence is the key to creating skill. Remove one, and the process slows.Combinethem,evenforsixminutes,andthingsbegintochange.


I

DeepPractice


Chapter1TheSweetSpot

Youwillbecomecleverthroughyourmistakes.

—Germanproverb

CHICKEN-WIREHARVARDS

InDecember2006IbeganvisitingtinyplacesthatproduceEverest-sizeamountsoftalent.*1MyjourneybeganataramshackletenniscourtinMoscow,andoverthenextfourteenmonthsittookmetoasoccerfieldinSãoPaolo,Brazil,avocalstudioinDallas,Texas,aninner-cityschoolinSanJose,California,arun-downmusic academy in New York's Adirondacks, a baseball-mad island in theCaribbean, and a handful of other places so small, humble, and titanicallyaccomplishedthatafrienddubbedthem“thechicken-wireHarvards.”Undertaking the journey presented me with a few challenges, the first of

whichwastoexplainittomywifeandfouryoungkidsinaslogical(read:un-harebrained)awayaspossible.SoIdecidedtoframeitasaGreatExpedition,sortof likethoseundertakenbynineteenth-centurynaturalists.Imadestraight-faced comparisons between my trip and Charles Darwin's voyage aboard theBeagle; I sagelyexpoundedhowsmall, isolatedplacesmagnify largerpatternsandforces,sortoflikepetridishes.Theseexplanationsseemedtowork—atleastforamoment.“Daddy's going on a treasure hunt,” I overheard my ten-year-old daughter

Katie patiently explain to her younger sisters. “You know, like at a birthdayparty.”Atreasurehunt,abirthday—actuallythatwasn'ttoofaroff.Theninehotbeds

Ivisitedsharedalmostnothingexceptthehappyunlikelinessoftheirexistence.Eachwasastatisticalimpossibility,amousethathadnotonlyroaredbutthathadsomehowcometoruletheforest.Buthow?The first clue arrived in the form of an unexpected pattern.When I started

visiting talent hotbeds, I expected to be dazzled. I expected towitnessworld-class speed, power, and grace. Those expectations were met and exceeded—abouthalf the time.For thathalfof the time,being ina talenthotbed felt likestandingamidaherdofrunningdeer:everythingmovedfasterandmorefluentlythanineverydaylife.(Youhaven'thadyouregotrulytesteduntilaneight-year-oldtakespityonyouonthetenniscourt.)


But that was only half of the time. During the other half I witnessedsomethingverydifferent:momentsof slow, fitful struggle, rather likewhat I'dseenontheClarissavideo.Itwasasiftheherdofdeersuddenlyencounteredahillside coated with ice. They slammed to a halt; they stopped, looked, andthoughtcarefullybeforetakingeachstep.Makingprogressbecameamatterofsmallfailures,arhythmicpatternofbotches,aswellassomethingelse:asharedfacialexpression.Theirtaut,intensesquintcausedthemtotakeon(Iknowthissoundsweird)anunaccountableresemblancetoClintEastwood.Meet Brunio. He's eleven years old, working on a new soccer move on a

concreteplaygroundinSãoPaolo,Brazil.Hemovesslowly,feelingtheballrollbeneaththesoleofhischeapsneaker.Heis tryingtolearntheelastico,aball-handlingmaneuverinwhichhenudgestheballwiththeoutsideofhisfoot,thenquicklyswingshisfootaroundtheballtoflickittheoppositedirectionwithhisinstep.Doneproperly,themovegivestheviewertheimpressionthattheplayerhastheballonarubberband.ThefirsttimewewatchBruniotrythemove,hefails, thenstopsand thinks.Hedoes itagainmoreslowlyandfailsagain—theball squirts away. He stops and thinks again. He does it even more slowly,breakingthemovedowntoitscomponentparts—this,this,andthat.Hisfaceistaut; his eyes are so focused, they look like they're somewhere else. Thensomethingclicks:hestartsnailingthemove.MeetJennie.She'stwenty-fouryearsold,andshe'sinacrampedDallasvocal

studioworkingonthechorusofapopsongcalled“RunningOutofTime.”Sheistryingtohitthebigfinish,inwhichsheturnsthewordtimeintoawaterfallofnotes. She tries it, screws up, stops, and thinks, then sings it again at amuchslower speed. Each time she misses a note, she stops and returns to thebeginning, or to the spotwhere shemissed. Jennie sings and stops, sings andstops.Then all of a sudden, she gets it.The pieces snap into place.The sixthtimethrough,Jenniesingsthemeasureperfectly.Whenwe see people practice effectively,we usually describe itwithwords

likewillpowerorconcentrationorfocus.Butthosewordsdon'tquitefit,becausetheydon'tcapturetheice-climbingparticularityoftheevent.Thepeopleinsidethetalenthotbedsareengagedinanactivitythatseems,onthefaceofit,strangeand surprising.They are seekingout the slipperyhills.LikeClarissa, they arepurposely operating at the edges of their ability, so they will screw up. Andsomehowscrewingupismakingthembetter.How?

Trying to describe the collective talent of Brazilian soccer players is liketrying todescribe the lawofgravity.Youcanmeasure it—the fiveWorldCup


victories,theninehundredorsoyoungtalentssignedeachyearbyprofessionalEuropeanclubs.Oryoucanname it—theprocessionof transcendentstars likePelé,Zico,Socrates,Romário,Ronaldo, Juninho,Robinho,Ronaldinho,Kaká,andotherswhohavedeservedlywornthecrownof“world'sbestplayer.”Butintheendyoucan'tcapturethepowerofBraziliantalentinnumbersandnames.Ithastobefelt.Everydaysoccerfansaroundtheworldwitnessthequintessentialscene:agroupofenemyplayerssurroundaBrazilian, leavinghimnooptions,no space,nohope.Then there's adancelikeblurofmotion—a feint, a flick, aburstofspeed—andsuddenlytheBrazilianplayerisintheclear,movingawayfromhisnow-tangledopponentswiththecasualaplombofapersonsteppingoffacrowdedbus.Eachday,Brazilaccomplishessomethingextremelydifficultandunlikely: in a game at which the entire world is feverishly competing, itcontinuestoproduceanunusuallyhighpercentageofthemostskilledplayers.Theconventionalwaytoexplainthiskindofconcentratedtalentistoattribute

it toacombinationofgenesandenvironment,a.k.a.natureandnurture.Inthisway of thinking, Brazil is great because it possesses a unique confluence offactors:a friendlyclimate,adeeppassion forsoccer,andageneticallydiversepopulationof190million,40percentofwhomaredesperatelypoorandlongtoescape through“thebeautiful game.”Addupall the factors and—voilà!—youhavetheidealfactoryforsoccergreatness.Butthere'saslightproblemwiththisexplanation:Brazilwasn'talwaysagreat

producerofsoccerplayers.Inthe1940sand1950s,withitstrifectaofclimate,passion, and poverty already firmly in place, the ideal factory producedunspectacularresults,neverwinningaWorldCup,failingtodefeatthen-world-powerHungaryinfourtries,showingfewofthedazzlingimprovisationalskillsforwhichitwouldlaterbecomeknown.Itwasn'tuntil1958thattheBraziltheworld now recognizes truly arrived, in the form of a brilliant team featuringseventeen-year-oldPelé,attheWorldCupinSweden.*2IfsometimeduringthenextdecadeBrazilshouldshockinglyloseitsloftyplaceinthesport(asHungaryso shockingly did), then the Brazil-is-unique argument leaves us with noconceivable response except to shrug and celebrate the new champion,whichundoubtedlywillalsopossessasetofcharacteristicsallitsown.SohowdoesBrazilproducesomanygreatplayers?ThesurprisingansweristhatBrazilproducesgreatplayersbecausesincethe

1950sBrazilianplayershave trained inaparticularway,withaparticular toolthatimprovesball-handlingskillfasterthananywhereelseintheworld.LikeanationofClarissas,theyhavefoundawaytoincreasetheirlearningvelocity—andlikeher,theyarebarelyawareofit.Icallthiskindoftrainingdeeppractice,


andaswe'llsee,itappliestomorethansoccer.Thebestwaytounderstandtheconceptofdeeppracticeistodoit.Takeafew

seconds to lookat the following lists; spend thesameamountof timeoneachone.

A B

ocean/breeze bread/b_tterleaf/tree music/l_ricssweet/sour sh_e/sockmovie/actress phone/bo_kgasoline/engine chi_s/salsahighschool/college pen_il/paperturkey/stuffing river/b_atfruit/vegetable be_r/winecomputer/chip television/rad_ochair/couch l_nch/dinner

Now turn the page.Without looking, try to remember asmanyof thewordpairsasyoucan.Fromwhichcolumndoyourecallmorewords?Ifyou'relikemostpeople,itwon'tevenbeclose:youwillremembermoreof

thewords incolumnB, theones thatcontainedfragments.Studiesshowyou'llremember three times asmany. It's as if, in those few seconds, yourmemoryskillssuddenly sharpened. If thishadbeen a test, your columnB scorewouldhavebeen300percenthigher.Your IQ did not increase while you looked at column B. You didn't feel

different.Youweren'ttouchedbygenius(sorry).Butwhenyouencounteredthewordswithblankspaces,somethingbothimperceptibleandprofoundhappened.Youstopped.Youstumbledeversobriefly,thenfigureditout.Youexperiencedamicrosecond of struggle, and thatmicrosecondmade all the difference.Youdidn'tpracticeharderwhenyoulookedatcolumnB.Youpracticeddeeper.Anotherexample:let'ssayyou'reatapartyandyou'restrugglingtoremember

someone's name. If someone else gives you that name, the odds of yourforgettingitagainarehigh.Butifyoumanagetoretrievethenameonyourown—tofirethesignalyourself,asopposedtopassivelyreceivingtheinformation—you'll engrave it into yourmemory.Not because that name is somehowmoreimportant,orbecauseyourmemoryimproved,butsimplybecauseyoupracticeddeeper.Orlet'ssayyou'reonanairplane,andfortheumpteenthtimeinyourlifeyou

watch the cabin steward give that clear, concise one-minute demonstration of


howtoputona lifevest. (“Slip thevestoveryourhead,” the instructionssay,“and fasten the two black straps to the front of the vest. Inflate the vest bypullingdownontheredtabs.”)Anhourintotheflight,theplanelurches,andthecaptain'surgentvoicecomeson the intercomtellingpassengers toputon theirlife vests. How quickly could you do it? How do those black straps wraparound?Whatdotheredtabsdoagain?Here's an alternate scenario: same airplane flight, but this time instead of

observingyetanotherlifejacketdemonstration,youtryonthelifevest.Youpulltheyellowplasticoveryourhead,andyoufiddlewiththetabsandthestraps.Anhour later the plane lurches, and the captain's voice comes over the intercom.Howmuchfasterwouldyoube?Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways—

operating at the edges of your ability,where youmakemistakes—makes yousmarter.Ortoputitaslightlydifferentway,experienceswhereyou'reforcedtoslowdown,makeerrors,andcorrect them—asyouwouldifyouwerewalkingupan ice-coveredhill, slippingandstumblingasyougo—endupmakingyouswiftandgracefulwithoutyourrealizingit.“Wethinkofeffortlessperformanceasdesirable,butit'sreallyaterribleway

tolearn,”saidRobertBjork,themanwhodevelopedtheaboveexamples.Bjork,the chair of psychology at UCLA, has spent most of his life delving intoquestions ofmemory and learning.He's a cheerful polymath, equally adept atdiscussingcurvesofmemorydecayorhowNBAstarShaquilleO'Neal,whoisnotoriously terrible at shooting free throws, should practice them from odddistances—14 feet and 16 feet, instead of the standard 15 feet. (Bjork'sdiagnosis:“Shaqneeds todevelop theability tomodulatehismotorprograms.Untilthenhe'llkeepbeingawful.”)“Thingsthatappeartobeobstaclesturnouttobedesirableinthelonghaul,”

Bjorksaid.“Onerealencounter,evenforafewseconds,isfarmoreusefulthanseveralhundredobservations.”BjorkcitesanexperimentbypsychologistHenryRoediger atWashingtonUniversity of St. Louis,where studentswere dividedinto twogroups to study a natural history text.GroupA studied the paper forfour sessions.GroupB studied only once butwas tested three times.Aweeklaterbothgroupsweretested,andGroupBscored50percenthigherthanGroupA.They'dstudiedone-fourthasmuchyetlearnedfarmore.(CatherineFritz,oneofBjork's students, said she applied these ideas to her schoolwork, and raisedherGPAbyafullpointwhilestudyinghalfasmuch.)Thereason,Bjorkexplained,residesinthewayourbrainsarebuilt.“Wetend


to think of ourmemory as a tape recorder, but that's wrong,” he said. “It's aliving structure, a scaffold of nearly infinite size. The more we generateimpulses, encountering and overcoming difficulties, the more scaffolding webuild.Themorescaffoldingwebuild,thefasterwelearn.”Whenyou'repracticingdeeply,theworld'susualrulesaresuspended.Youuse

timemoreefficiently.Yoursmalleffortsproducebig, lasting results.Youhavepositionedyourselfataplaceofleveragewhereyoucancapturefailureandturnit intoskill.The trick is tochooseagoal justbeyondyourpresentabilities; totargetthestruggle.Thrashingblindlydoesn'thelp.Reachingdoes.“It's all about finding the sweet spot,” Bjork said. “There's an optimal gap

betweenwhatyouknowandwhatyou'retryingtodo.Whenyoufindthatsweetspot,learningtakesoff.”*3

Deeppracticeisastrangeconceptfortworeasons.Thefirstreasonisthatitcutsagainstourintuitionabouttalent.Ourintuitiontellsusthatpracticerelatestotalentinthesamewaythatawhetstonerelatestoaknife:it'svitalbutuselesswithout a solid blade of so-called natural ability. Deep practice raises anintriguingpossibility:thatpracticemightbethewaytoforgethebladeitself.Thesecondreasondeeppracticeisastrangeconceptisthatittakeseventsthat

wenormallystrive toavoid—namely,mistakes—andturns themintoskills.Tounderstand how deep practice works, then, it's first useful to consider theunexpectedbutcrucialimportanceoferrorstothelearningprocess.Infact,let'sconsideranextremeexample,whicharrives in theformofaquestion:howdoyougetgoodatsomethingwhenmakingamistakehasadecentchanceofkillingyou?

EDWINLINK'SUNUSUALDEVICE

Inthewinterof1934PresidentFranklinRoosevelthadaproblem.PilotsintheU.S.ArmyAirCorps—byallaccountsthemilitary'smostskilled,combat-readyairmen—weredyingincrashes.OnFebruary23apilotdrownedwhenhelandedofftheNewJerseycoast;anotherwaskilledwhenhisplanecartwheeledintoaTexas ditch. OnMarch 9 four more pilots died when their planes crashed inFlorida,Ohio,andWyoming.Thecarnagewasnotcausedbyawar.Thepilotsweresimplytryingtoflythroughwinterstorms,deliveringtheU.S.mail.The crashes could be traced to a corporate scandal. A recent Senate

investigationhadexposedamultimillion-dollarprice-fixingschemeamong thecommercial airlinescontracted tocarry theU.S.mail.PresidentRoosevelthad


swiftly responded by canceling the contracts. To take over mail delivery, thepresidentcalledupontheAirCorps,whosegeneralswereeagertodemonstratetheirpilots'willingnessandbravery.(TheyalsowantedtoshowRoosevelt thattheAirCorpsdeservedthestatusofafullmilitarybranch,equaltotheArmyandNavy.) Those generals were mostly right about Air Corps pilots: they werewilling,andtheywerebrave.Butintheharshwinterstormsof1934,AirCorpspilotskeptcrashing.EarlyonthemorningofMarch10,aftertheninthpilotdiedin twentydays,FDRsummonedGeneralBenjaminFoulois,commanderof theAirCorps,totheWhiteHouse.“General,”thepresidentsaidfiercely,“whenaretheseairmailkillingsgoingtostop?”Itwasagoodquestion,onethatRooseveltmighthavedirectedat thewhole

enterpriseofpilot training.Earlypilot trainingwasbuilton thebedrockbeliefthat good pilots are born, not made. Most programs followed an identicalprocedure:theinstructorwouldtaketheprospectivestudentupintheplaneandexecuteaseriesofloopsandrolls.Ifthestudentdidnotgetsick,hewasdeemedto have the capability to become a pilot and, after several weeks of groundschool, was gradually allowed to handle the controls. Trainees learned bytaxiing,or“penguin-hopping”instubby-wingedcrafts,ortheyflewandhoped.(LuckyLindy's nicknamewaswell earned.) The system didn'twork toowell.Early fatality rates at some Army aviation schools approached 25 percent; in1912eightofthefourteenU.S.Armypilotsdiedincrashes.By1934techniquesand technologyhadbeen refinedbut training remainedprimitive.TheAirmailFiasco, as Roosevelt's problem swiftly became known, raised the questionpointedly:wasthereabetterwaytolearntofly?Theanswercamefromanunlikelysource:EdwinAlbertLink,Jr.,thesonofa

pianoandorganmakerfromBinghamton,NewYork,whogrewupworkingathis father's factory. Skinny, beak-nosed, and epically stubborn, Link was atinkererbynature.Whenhewassixteen,hefell inlovewithflyingandtooka$50lessonfromSydneyChaplin(halfbrotherofthemoviestar).“Forthebetterpartof thathourwedidloopsandspinsandbuzzedeverythinginsight,”Linklaterrecalled.“ThankheavenIdidn'tgetsick,butwhenwegotdown,Ihadn'ttouchedthecontrolsatall.Ithought,‘That'sahellofawaytoteachsomeonetofly’”Link's fascination grew. He started hanging around local barnstormers,

cadginglessons.Link'sfatherdidn'tappreciatehisinterestinflying—hebrieflyfiredyoungEdwinfromhisjobattheorganfactorywhenhefoundoutaboutit.ButLinkkeptat it,eventuallypurchasingafour-seatCessna.All thewhilehistinkerer's mind kept circling the notion of improving pilot training. In 1927,


sevenyearsafterhisinitiallessonwithChaplin,Linkwenttowork.Borrowingbellows and pneumatic pumps from the organ factory, he built a device thatcompressed the key elements of a plane into a space slightly roomier than abathtub.Itfeaturedstubbyprehensilewings,atinytail,aninstrumentpanel,andan electricmotor thatmade the device roll, pitch, and yaw in response to thepilotcontrols.Asmalllightonthenoselitupwhenthepilotmadeanerror.Linkchristened it theLinkAviationTrainer andputupanadvertisement:hewouldteach regular flying and instrument flying—that is, the ability to fly blindthroughfogandstormswhilerelyingongaugesalone.Hewouldteachpilotstoflyinhalfthetimeofregulartrainingandatafractionofthecost.TosaythattheworldoverlookedLink'strainerwouldn'tbeaccurate.Thetruth

was,theworldlookedatitandissuedaresoundingandconclusiveno.Nooneheapproachedseemedinterested inLink'sdevice—not themilitaryacademies,notprivateflyingschools,notevenbarnstormers.Afterall,howcouldyoulearntoflyinachild'stoy?NolessanauthoritythantheU.S.PatentOfficedeclaredLink'strainera“novel,profitableamusementdevice.”Andsoitseemeddestinedtobecome.WhileLinksoldfiftytrainerstoamusementparksandpennyarcades,only two reached actual training facilities: one he sold to a Navy airfield inPensacola,Florida,andanotherheloanedtotheNewJerseyNationalGuardunitinNewark.Bytheearly1930sLinkwasreducedtohaulingoneofhistrainersonaflatbedtrucktocountyfairgrounds,chargingtwenty-fivecentsaride.WhentheAirmailFiascohit in thewinterof1934,however,agroupofAir

Corpsbrassgrewdesperate.CaseyJones,aveteranpilotwhohadtrainedmanyof theArmypilots, recalledLink's trainerandpersuadedagroupofAirCorpsofficerstotakeasecondlook.InearlyMarch,Linkwassummonedtoflyfromhis home in Cortland, New York, to Newark to demonstrate the trainer he'dloanedtotheNationalGuard.Theappointeddaywascloudy,withzerovisibility,nastywinds,anddrivingrain.TheAirCorpscommanders,bynowfamiliarwiththe possible outcomes of such hazards, surmised that no pilot, nomatter howbraveorskilled,couldpossiblyflyinsuchweather.Theywerejustleavingthefield when they heard a telltale drone overhead in the clouds, steadilydescending. Link's plane appeared as a ghost, materializing only a few feetabove the runway, kissed down with a perfect landing, and taxied up to thesurprisedgenerals.Theskinnyfellowdidnot look likeLindbergh,buthe flewlike him—and on instruments, no less. Link proceeded to demonstrate histrainer,andinoneofthefirstrecordedinstancesofnerdpowertrumpingmilitarytradition, the officers understood its potential. The generals ordered the firstshipmentofLinktrainers.Sevenyearslater,WorldWarIIbegan,andwithitthe


needtotransformthousandsofunskilledyouthintopilotsasquicklyandsafelyaspossible.ThatneedwasansweredbytenthousandLinktrainers;bytheendofthewar,ahalf-millionairmenhadloggedmillionsofhoursinwhattheyfondlycalled“TheBlueBox.”*4In1947theAirCorpsbecametheU.S.AirForce,andLinkwentontobuildsimulatorsforjets,bombers,andthelunarmodulefortheApollomission.Edwin Link's trainer worked so well for the same reason you scored 300

percent better on Bjork's blank-letter test. Link's trainer permitted pilots topracticemoredeeply,tostop,struggle,makeerrors,andlearnfromthem.DuringafewhoursinaLinktrainer,apilotcould“takeoff”and“land”adozentimesoninstruments.Hecoulddive,stall,andrecover,spendinghoursinhabitingthesweetspotattheedgeofhiscapabilitiesinwayshecouldneverriskinanactualplane.TheAirCorpspilotswhotrainedinLinkswerenobraverorsmarterthantheoneswhocrashed.Theysimplyhadtheopportunitytopracticemoredeeply.Thisideaofdeeppracticemakesperfectsenseintrainingfordangerousjobs

likethoseoffighterpilotsandastronauts.Itgetsinteresting,however,whenweapply it to other kinds of skills. Like, for instance, those of Brazil's soccerplayers.

BRAZIL'SSECRETWEAPON

Like many sports fans around the world, soccer coach Simon Clifford wasfascinated by the supernatural skills of Brazilian soccer players. Unlike mostfans,however,hedecided togo toBrazil tosee ifhecould findouthow theydevelopedthoseskills.Thiswasanunusuallyambitious initiativeonClifford'spart, considering that he had gained all his coaching experience at a Catholicelementary school in the soccer non-hotbed of Leeds, England. Then again,Clifford is not what you'd call usual. He's tall and dashingly handsome andradiates the sort of charismatic, bulletproof confidence one usually associateswith missionaries and emperors. (In his early twenties Clifford was severelyinjured in a freak soccer accident—suffering internal organ damage, kidneyremoval—and perhaps as a result he approaches each day with immoderatezeal.)Inthesummerof1997,whenhewastwenty-six,Cliffordborrowed$8,000fromhisteachers'unionandsetoutforBraziltotingabackpack,avideocamera,andanotebookfullofphonenumbershe'dcajoledfromaBrazilianplayerhe'dmet.Oncethere,Cliffordspentmostofhistimeexploringthethrongingexpanseof


SãoPaolo, sleeping in roach-infesteddormitoriesbynight, scribblingnotesbyday.He sawmany things he'd expected to find: the passion, the tradition, thehighlyorganizedtrainingcenters,thelongpracticesessions.(TeenageplayersatBraziliansocceracademieslogtwentyhoursperweek,comparedwithfivehoursper week for their British counterparts.) He saw the towering poverty of thefavelas,andthedesperationintheplayers'eyes.But Clifford also saw something he didn't expect: a strange game. It

resembled soccer, if soccerwere played inside a phone booth and dosedwithamphetamines.Theballwashalfthesizebutweighedtwiceasmuch;ithardlybouncedatall.Theplayerstrained,notonavastexpanseofgrassfield,butonbasketball-court-size patches of concrete, wooden floor, and dirt. Each side,instead of having eleven players, had five or six. In its rhythm and blindingspeed, thegameresembledbasketballorhockeymore thansoccer: itconsistedofanintricateseriesofquick,controlledpassesandnonstopend-to-endaction.Thegamewascalledfuteboldesalão,Portuguesefor“soccerintheroom.”Itsmodernincarnationwascalledfutsal.“Itwasclear tome that thiswaswhereBrazilianskillswereborn,”Clifford

said.“Itwaslikefindingthemissinglink.”Futsal had been invented in 1930 as a rainy-day training option by a

Uruguayancoach.Braziliansquicklyseizeduponitandcodifiedthefirstrulesin1936.Sincethenthegamehadspreadlikeavirus,especiallyinBrazil'scrowdedcities,anditquicklycametooccupyauniqueplaceinBraziliansportingculture.Othernationsplayedfutsal,butBrazilbecameuniquelyobsessedwithit,inpartbecause the game could be played anywhere (no small advantage in a nationwheregrassfieldsarerare).FutsalgrewtocommandthepassionsofBraziliankidsinthesamewaythatpickupbasketballcommandsthepassionsofinner-cityAmericankids.Brazildominatesthesport'sorganizedversion,winning35of38internationalcompetitions,accordingtoVicenteFigueiredo,authorofHistoryofFuteboldeSalão.Butthatnumberonlysuggeststhetime,effort,andenergythatBrazil pours into this strange homemade game. As Alex Bellos, author ofFutebol:Soccer,theBrazilianWay,wrote,futsal“isregardedastheincubatoroftheBraziliansoul.”Theincubationisreflectedinplayers'biographies.FromPeléonwardvirtually

everygreatBrazilianplayerplayedfutsalasakid,firstintheneighborhoodandlateratBrazil'ssocceracademies,wherefromagesseventoaroundtwelvetheytypically devoted three days a week to futsal. A top Brazilian player spendsthousandsofhoursat thegame.Thegreat Juninho, for instance, saidheneverkicked a full-size ball on grass until he was fourteen. Until he was twelve,


Robinhospenthalfhistrainingtimeplayingfutsal.*5

Like a vintner identifying a lovely strain of grape, a cognoscente like Dr.EmilioMiranda,professorofsoccerattheUniversityofSãoPaolo,canidentifythefutsalwiringwithinfamousBraziliansoccertricks.ThatelasticomovethatRonaldinhopopularized,drawingtheballinandoutlikeayoyo?Itoriginatedinfutsal.The toe-pokegoal thatRonaldo scored in the2002WorldCup?Again,futsal.Moves like thed'espero, el barret, andvaselina?All came from futsal.WhenI toldMirandathatI'dimaginedBraziliansbuiltskillsbyplayingsocceron the beach, he laughed. “Journalists fly here, go to the beach, they takepictures andwrite stories.But great players don't come from the beach. Theycomefromthefutsalcourt.”Onereasonliesinthemath.Futsalplayerstouchtheballfarmoreoftenthan

soccer players—six times more often per minute, according to a LiverpoolUniversity study.The smaller, heavierball demands and rewardsmoreprecisehandling—as coaches point out, you can't get out of a tight spot simply bybooting the ball downfield. Sharp passing is paramount: the game is all aboutlooking for angles and spaces and working quick combinations with otherplayers.Ballcontrolandvisionarecrucial,sothatwhenfutsalplayersplaythefull-sizegame,theyfeelasiftheyhaveacresoffreespaceinwhichtooperate.When I watched professional outdoor games in São Paolo sitting with Dr.Miranda,hewouldpointoutplayerswhohadplayedfutsal:hecouldtellbythewaytheyheldtheball.Theydidn'tcarehowclosetheiropponentcame.AsDr.Mirandasummedup,“Notimeplusnospaceequalsbetterskills.Futsal isournationallaboratoryofimprovisation.”In other words, Brazilian soccer is different from the rest of the world's

because Brazil employs the sporting equivalent of a Link trainer. Futsalcompressessoccer'sessentialskillsintoasmallbox;itplacesplayersinsidethedeeppracticezone,makingandcorrectingerrors,constantlygeneratingsolutionsto vivid problems. Players touching the ball 600 percentmore often learn farfaster,without realizing it, than theywould in thevast,bouncyexpanseof theoutdoorgame(where,atleastinmymind,playersrunalongtothesoundtrackofClarissatootlingawayon“TheBlueDanube”).Tobeclear:futsalisnottheonlyreason Brazilian soccer is great. The other factors so often cited—climate,passion, and poverty—really domatter. But futsal is the lever through whichthoseotherfactorstransfertheirforce.WhenSimonCliffordsawfutsal,hegotexcited.Hereturnedhome,quithis

teachingjob,andfoundedtheInternationalConfederationofFuteboldeSalãoina spare room of his house, developing a soccer program for elementary-and


high-school-agekidsthathecalledtheBrazilianSoccerSchool.Heconstructedan elaborate series of drills based on futsal moves. His players, who mostlyhailedfromarough,impoverishedareaofLeeds,startedimitatingtheZicosandRonaldinhos.Tocreatetheproperambience,Cliffordplayedsambamusiconaboombox.Let's step back a moment and take an objective look at what Clifford was

doing. He was running an experiment to see whether Brazil's million-footedtalent factory could be grafted to an utterly foreign land via this small, sillygame.Hewasbetting that theactofplayingfutsalwouldcausesomeglowingkernelofBrazilianmagictotakerootinsooty,chillyLeeds.When the citizens of Leeds heard of Clifford's plan, they were mildly

entertained. When they actually witnessed his school in action, they were ingravedangerof laughing themselves todeathat the spectacle:dozensofpale,pink-cheeked, thick-necked Yorkshire kids kicking around small, too-heavyballs,learningfancytrickstothetuneofsambamusic.Itwasalaugh,exceptforonedetail—Cliffordwasright.Four years later Clifford's team of under-fourteens defeated the Scottish

nationalteamofthesameage;itwentontobeattheIrishnationalteamaswell.One of his Leeds kids, a defender namedMicah Richards, now plays for theEnglish national team. Clifford's Brazilian Soccer School has expanded to adozencountriesaroundtheworld.Morestars,Cliffordsays,areontheway.

*1 The word talent can be vague and loaded with slippery overtones about potential,particularly when it comes to young people—research shows that being a prodigy is anunreliableindicatoroflong-termsuccess(seepage223).Intheinterestofclarity,we'lldefinetalent in its strictest sense: thepossessionof repeatable skills that don't dependonphysicalsize(sorry,jockeysandNFLlinemen).*2Soccer historians trace themoment to theopening threeminutes ofBrazil's 1958WorldCup semifinal victory against the heavily favored Soviet Union. The Soviets, who wereregardedasthepinnacleofmoderntechnique,wereoverrunbytheball-handlingskillsofPelé,Garrincha,andVavá.AscommentatorLuisMendessaid,“ThescientificsystemsoftheSovietUnion died a death right there. They put the first man in space, but they couldn't markGarrincha.”*3Goodadvertisingoperatesbythesameprinciplesofdeeppractice,increasinglearningbyplacingviewersinthesweetspotattheedgeoftheircapabilities.Thisiswhymanysuccessfuladsinvolvesomedegreeofcognitivework,suchasthewhiskeyadthatfeaturedthetagline“…ingleells,…ingleells…Theholidaysaren'tthesamewithoutJ&B.”*4Themilitary's regardfor theefficacyofLink's trainersapparentlywentonlysofar.LinkwaspermittedtosellhundredsofhisdevicestoJapan,Germany,andtheUSSRintheyearsleading up toWorldWar II, creating a situationwhere both sides inmany dogfightswere,training-wise,evenlymatched.*5Foravividdemonstrationoffutsal'sroleindevelopingtheskillsoftwo-timeworldplayer


oftheyearRonaldinho,seewww.youtube.com/watch?v=6180cMhkWJA.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6180cMhkWJA

Chapter2TheDeepPracticeCell

Ihavealwaysmaintainedthatexceptingfools,mendidnotdiffermuchinintellect,onlyin

zealandhardwork.

—CharlesDarwin

INSTALLINGNATURALBROADBAND

Deeppracticeisapowerfulideabecauseitseemsmagical.Clarissabeginsasanaveragemusicianand,insixminutes,accomplishesamonth'sworthofwork.Adangerouslyunskilledpilotclimbs intoaLink trainerand,withina fewhours,emergeswithnewabilities.Thefactthatatargetedeffortcanincreaselearningvelocitytenfoldsoundslikeafairytaleinwhichahandfuloftinyseedsgrowsinto an enchanted vine. But strangely, the enchanted vine turns out to besomethingclosetoneurologicalfact.Early in my travels I was introduced to a microscopic substance called

myelin.*1Hereiswhatitlookslike.

THESTUFFOFTALENT:Across-sectionoftwonervefibersbeingwrappedinmyelin.Thisimagewastakenearlyintheprocess;onsomefibers,themyelininsulationgrowsfiftylayersdeep.(CourtesyofR.DouglasFieldsandLouisDye,NationalInstitutesof

Health.)


One ofmyelin's side effects is to cause sober-minded neurologists to smileandstammerlikeexplorerswho'vejuststeppedashoreonavastandpromisingnewcontinent.Theydon'twant tobehave like this—theydo theirbest to stayseriousandappropriatelyneurologist-like.Butmyelinwon'tletthem.Knowingaboutmyelinchangesthewaytheyseetheworld.“It's,wow—it's big,” saidDr.Douglas Fields, director of theLaboratory of

DevelopmentalNeurobiology at theNational Institutes ofHealth in Bethesda,Maryland.“It'searly,butthiscouldbehuge.”“Revolutionary,”Dr.GeorgeBartzokis,professorofneurologyatUCLA,told

me.Myelinis“thekeytotalking,reading,learningskills,beinghuman.”Likemostpeople, Iwasunder the impression that thekey to learningskills

and being human resided in our brain's neurons, that flickering web ofinterconnected nerve fibers and the famous synapses throughwhich they linkandcommunicate.ButFields,Bartzokis,andothersinformedmethatwhiletheystill consider neurons and synapses to be vitally important, the traditionalneuron-centricworldview is being fundamentally altered by aCopernican-sizerevolution.Thishumble-lookinginsulation, it turnsout,playsakeyrole in thewayourbrainsfunction,particularlywhenitcomestoacquiringskills.The revolution is built on three simple facts. (1) Every human movement,

thought,orfeelingisapreciselytimedelectricsignaltravelingthroughachainof neurons—a circuit of nerve fibers. (2)Myelin is the insulation that wrapsthese nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy. (3) Themorewefireaparticularcircuit,themoremyelinoptimizesthatcircuit,andthestronger,faster,andmorefluentourmovementsandthoughtsbecome.“Everythingneuronsdo,theydoprettyquickly.Ithappenswiththeflickofa

switch,”Fieldssaid,referringtosynapses.“Butflickingswitchesisnothowwelearn a lot of things.Gettinggood at pianoor chess or baseball takes a lot oftime,andthat'swhatmyelinisgoodat.”“What do good athletes do when they train?” Bartzokis said. “They send

precise impulses alongwires that give the signal tomyelinate thatwire.Theyendup,afterallthetraining,withasuper-duperwire—lotsofbandwidth,ahigh-speedT-3line.That'swhatmakesthemdifferentfromtherestofus.”IaskedFieldsifmyelinmighthavesomethingtodowiththephenomenonof

talenthotbeds.He didn't hesitate. “Iwould predict that SouthKoreanwomen golfers have

moremyelin,onaverage,thanplayersfromothercountries,”hesaid.“They'vegotmoreintherightpartsofthebrainandfortherightmusclegroups,andthat's


what allows them to optimize their circuitry. The samewould be true for anygrouplikethat.”“TigerWoods?”Iasked.“DefinitelyTigerWoods,”Fieldssaid.“Thatguy'sgotalotofmyelin.”ResearcherslikeFieldsareattractedtomyelinbecauseitpromisestoprovide

insightsintothebiologicalrootsoflearningandofcognitivedisorders.Forourpurposes, however, the workings of myelin link the various talent hotbeds toeach other and to the rest of us. Myelination bears the same relationship tohuman skill as plate tectonics does to geology, or as natural selection does toevolution.Itexplainstheworld'scomplexitywithasimple,elegantmechanism.Skillismyelininsulationthatwrapsneuralcircuitsandthatgrowsaccordingtocertainsignals.Thestoryofskillandtalentisthestoryofmyelin.Clarissacouldn'tfeelit,butwhenshewasdeep-practicing“GoldenWedding,”

shewasfiringandoptimizinganeuralcircuit—andgrowingmyelin.WhenAirCorpspilotsdeep-practicedinsideEdwinLink'strainer, theywere

firingandoptimizingneuralcircuits—andgrowingmyelin.WhenRonaldinhoandRonaldoplayedfutsal,theywerefiringandoptimizing

theircircuitsmoreoftenandmorepreciselythanwhentheyplayedtheoutdoorgame.Theyweregrowingmoremyelin.Likeanydecentepiphanytherecognitionoftheimportanceofmyelinjoltsold

perceptions.AfterIvisitedFieldsandtheothermyelinscientists,IfeltasifIhaddonnedX-ray glasses that showedme a newway of seeing the world. I sawmyelin'sprinciplesoperatingnot just in the talenthotbedsbutalso inmykids'piano practicing, inmywife's new hockey obsession, and inmy questionableforays intokaraoke.*2 Itwasanunambiguouslygood feeling, ahappybuzzofreplacingguessworkandvoodoowithaclear,understandablemechanism.Hazyquestionssnappedintofocus.

Q:Whyistargeted,mistake-focusedpracticesoeffective?A:Becausethebestwaytobuildagoodcircuitistofireit,attendtomistakes,thenfireit

again,overandover.Struggleisnotanoption:it'sabiologicalrequirement.

Q:Whyarepassionandpersistencekeyingredientsoftalent?A:Becausewrappingmyelinaroundabigcircuitrequiresimmenseenergyandtime.Ifyou

don'tloveit,you'llneverworkhardenoughtobegreat.

Q:What'sthebestwaytogettoCarnegieHall?A:GostraightdownMyelinStreet.

My journey down Myelin Street began with a visit to an incubator at the


LaboratoryofDevelopmentalNeurobiologyattheNationalInstitutesofHealth.The incubator, about the size of a small refrigerator, held shinywire racks onwhichsatseveralrowsofpetridishescontainingapink-Gatorade-lookingliquid.Insidethepinkliquidwereplatinumelectrodessendingtinyburstsofcurrenttomouseneuronscoveredwithapearlescentwhitesubstance.“That'sit,”saidDr.Fields.“That'sthestuff.”Fields,fifty-four,isasinewy,energeticmanwithabroadsmileandajaunty

gait.A formerbiologicaloceanographer,heoversees a six-person, seven-roomlab that is outfitted with hissing canisters, buzzing electrical boxes, and tidybundles of wires and hoses, and that resembles nothing so much as a tidy,efficientship.Inaddition,Fieldshastheseacaptain'shabitofmakingextremelyexciting moments sound matter-of-fact. The more exciting something is, themoreboringhemakesitseem.Forinstance,hewastellingmeaboutasix-dayclimbofYosemite's3,500-footElCapitanthathemadetwosummersback,andIasked what it felt like to sleep while hanging from a rope thousands of feetabovetheground.“It'sactuallynotthatdifferent,”Fieldssaid,hisexpressionsounchangingthathemighthavebeendiscussingatriptothegrocerystore.“Youadapt.”NowFields reaches into the incubator, extractsoneof thepinkpetridishes,

andslidesitbeneathamicroscope.Hisvoiceisquiet.“Haveapeek,”hesays.Ileanin,expectingtoseesomethingsci-fiandmagical-looking.InsteadIsee

a tangled bunch of spaghettilike threads, which Fields informs me are nervefibers.Themyelinishardertosee,afaintlyundulatingfringeontheedgeoftheneurons. I blink, refocus, and struggle to imagine how this stuff may be thecommonlinkbetweenMozartandMichaelJordan,orattheveryleastthekeytoimprovingmygolfgame.FortunatelyDr. Fields is a good teacher, and in our conversations over the

previous days he has explained the two principles that underpin anunderstandingofmyelinandskill.Talkingtohim,astomanyneurologists,feelssomething likemountain-climbing itself: it involves a bit of sweat, but you'rerewardedwithanewandloftyperspective.For starters, there'sUsefulBrain Science InsightNumber 1:All actions are

really the result of electrical impulses sent along chains of nerve fibers.Basically, our brains are bundles of wires—100 billion wires called neurons,connected to eachotherby synapses.Wheneveryoudo something,yourbrainsendsasignal throughthosechainsofnervefibers toyourmuscles.Eachtimeyoupracticeanything—singatune,swingaclub,readthissentence—adifferent


highlyspecificcircuit lightsupinyourmind,sortoflikeastringofChristmaslights.Thesimplestskill—say,atennisbackhand—involvesacircuitmadeupofhundredsofthousandsoffibersandsynapses.Fundamentally,everyoneofthosecircuitslookslikethis:

Theinputisallthestuffthathappensbeforeweperformanaction:seeingtheball,feelingtheracquet'spositioninourhand,decidingtoswing.Theoutputistheperformance itself: thesignals thatmove themuscleswith the right timingandforcetotakeastep,turnthehips,theshoulders,thearm.When you hit that backhand (or play an A-minor chord, or make a chess

move), an impulse travels down those fibers, like voltage through a cord,triggering the other fibers to fire. The point is that these circuits, not ourobedient, mindless muscles, are the true control center of every humanmovement,thought,andskill.Inaprofoundwaythecircuitisthemovement:itdictates the precise strength and timing of eachmuscle contraction, the shapeand content of each thought. A sluggish, unreliable circuit means a sluggish,unreliablemovement;ontheotherhand,afast,synchronouscircuitmeansafast,synchronousmovement.Whenacoachusesthephrase“musclememory,”heisactually talking about circuits; by themselves, our muscles are as useful as apuppetwithoutstrings.AsDr.Fieldsputsit,ourskillsareallinourwires.Thenthere'sUsefulBrainScienceInsightNumber2:Themorewedevelopa

skillcircuit, the lesswe'reaware thatwe'reusing it.We'rebuilt tomakeskillsautomatic,tostashtheminourunconsciousmind.Thisprocess,whichiscalledautomaticity,existsforpowerfulevolutionaryreasons.(Themoreprocessingwecandoinourunconsciousminds,thebetterourchancesofnoticingthatsaber-toothed tiger lurking in the brush.) It also creates a powerfully convincingillusion: a skill, once gained, feels utterly natural, as if it's something we'vealwayspossessed.These two insights—skills as brain circuits and automaticity—create a

paradoxicalcombination:we'reforeverbuildingvast,intricatecircuits,andwe'resimultaneouslyforgettingthatwebuiltthem.Whichiswheremyelincomesin.


Tosay thatmyelin looksboring is toflatter it.Myelindoesnot lookmerelyboring. It looks fantastically, unrelentingly, stupendouslydull. If thebrain is aBlade Runner cityscape of dazzling neuronal structures, flashing lights, andwhizzing impulses, then myelin plays the humble role of the asphalt. It's theuniform,seeminglyinertinfrastructure.It'scomposedofamundanityknownasphospholipid membrane, a dense fat that wraps like electrical tape around anerve fiber, preventing the electrical impulses from leakingout. It arrives in aseries of long, rounded shapes that more than one neurologist unpoeticallydescribesas“sausagey.”Giventheseeminglyobvioussupremacyofneurons,thefirstbrainresearchers

confidently named their new science neurology, even though myelin and itssupportercells,knownaswhitematter,accountformorethanhalfofthebrain'smass. For a century researchers have focused their attention on neurons andsynapses rather than on their seemingly inert insulation, which they studiedmostlyinrelationtomultiplesclerosisandothermyelin-destroyingautoimmunediseases. As it turned out, researchers were mostly correct—neurons andsynapsescanindeedexplainalmosteveryclassofmentalphenomena:memoryemotion, muscle control, sensory perception, and so on. But there's a keyquestion that neurons can't explain: why does it take people so long to learncomplexskills?Oneofthefirstcluestomyelin'srolewasuncoveredinthemid-1980sbyan

experiment involving rats and Tonka toy dump trucks. Bill Greenough at theUniversity of Illinois raised three groups of rats in varying ways. In the firstgroup individual ratswere isolated fromother rats, eachone in a largeplasticshoebox. The rats in the second groupwere raisedwith other rats but also inshoeboxes. The rats in the third group, however, were raised in an enrichedenvironment,surroundedbyotherratsandapileof toys that they instinctively


playedwith,eventothepointoffiguringouthowtoworktheleveronthedumptruck.WhenGreenough autopsied the animals' brains after twomonths, he found

thatthenumberofsynapsesintheenriched-environmentgrouphadincreasedby25 percent compared with the other two groups. Greenough's work was wellreceived, helping establish the idea of brain plasticity, in particular the notionthat the brain has critical developmental windows, during which its growthresponds to itsenvironment.Butburied inGreenough's studywasasecondaryfindingthatwaslargelyignoredbythescientificcommunity.Somethingelsehadalso grown by 25 percent in the enriched-environment group: white matter—myelin.“We'd been ignoring myelin; everybody thought it was a bystander,”

Greenoughsaid.“Butthenitbecameclearthatbigthingswerehappeningthere.”Still, neurons and synapses continued to get the lion's share of research

attention until around2000,when a powerful new technology called diffusiontensor imaging allowed neurologists tomeasure andmapmyelin inside livingsubjects.Suddenlyresearchersbegantolinkstructuraldeficienciesinmyelintoavarietyofdisorders,includingdyslexia,autism,attentiondeficitdisorder,post-traumaticstresssyndrome,andevenpathologicallying.Whilemanyresearchersfocusedonmyelin'slinktodisease,anothergroupbecameinterestedintheroleitmightplayinnormal,evenhigh-functioning,individuals.More studies followed. In2005FredrikUllen scanned thebrainsof concert

pianistsandfoundadirectlyproportionalrelationshipbetweenhoursofpracticeandwhitematter.In2000TorkelKlingberglinkedreadingskilltowhitematterincreases,andin2006JesusPujoldidthesameforvocabularydevelopment.In2005theCincinnatiChildren'sHospitalstudyof47normalchildrenaged5to18correlatedincreasedIQwithincreasedorganizationanddensityofwhitematter.Other researchers, likeDr.Fields,uncovered themechanismbywhich these

myelin increases happened. As he described in a 2006 paper in the journalNeuron, supporter cells calledoligodendrocytes and astrocytes sense thenervefiringandrespondbywrappingmoremyelinonthefiberthatfires.Themorethenervefires,themoremyelinwrapsaroundit.Themoremyelinwrapsaroundit,thefaster thesignals travel, increasingvelocitiesup toonehundred timesoversignalssentthroughanuninsulatedfiber.The studies piled up, gradually coalescing into a new picture. Myelin is

infrastructureall right,butwithapowerful twist:within thevastmetropolisofthe brain, myelin quietly transforms narrow alleys into broad, lightning-fast


superhighways.Neuraltrafficthatoncetrundledalongattwomilesanhourcan,withmyelin'shelp,acceleratetotwohundredmilesanhour.Therefractorytime(thewaitrequiredbetweenonesignalandthenext)decreasesbyafactorof30.The increased speed and decreased refractory time combine to boost overallinformation-processingcapabilityby3,000times—broadbandindeed.What's more, myelin has the capacity to regulate velocity, speeding or

occasionally even slowing signals so they hit synapses at the optimal time.Timingisvitalbecauseneuronsarebinary:eithertheyfireortheydon't,nograyarea.Whethertheyfiredependssolelyonwhethertheincomingimpulseisbigenough to exceed their threshold of activation. To explain the implications,Fieldshadmeimagineaskillcircuitwheretwoneuronshavetocombinetheirimpulsestomakeathirdhigh-thresholdneuronfire—for,say,agolfswing.Buthere'sthecatch:inordertocombineproperly,thosetwoincomingimpulsesmustarriveatnearlyexactlythesametime—sortofliketwosmallpeoplerunningataheavydoortopushitopen.Thatrequiredtimewindowturnsouttobeabout4milliseconds,orabouthalf thetimeit takesabeetoflapitswingsonce.If thefirst twosignalsarrivemore than4millisecondsapart, thedoorstaysshut, thecrucial third neuron doesn't fire, and the golf ball soars into the rough. “Yourbrainhas somanyconnectionsandpossibilities thatyourgenescan't code theneuronstotimethingssoprecisely,”Fieldssaid.“Butyoucanbuildmyelintodoit.”While the precisemechanismof optimization remains amystery for now—

Fields theorizes that a feedback loop is at work, monitoring, comparing, andintegratingoutputs—theoverallpictureaddsuptoaprocesselegantenoughtoplease Darwin himself: nerve firings grow myelin, myelin controls impulsespeed,andimpulsespeedisskill.Myelindoesn'tmakesynapsesunimportant—tothecontrary,Fieldsandotherneurologistsemphasizethatsynapticalchangesremain key to learning. Butmyelin plays amassive role in how that learningmanifestsitself.AsFieldsputit,“Signalshavetotravelattherightspeed,arriveattherighttime,andmyelinationisthebrain'swayofcontrollingthatspeed.”


Thisisthelearningmoment,whenthecircuitsfireandtheoligosreachoutandstartwrappingthenervefiberwithmyelin.Thisisskillbeingborn.(FromR.DouglasFields,“WhiteMatterMatters,”ScientificAmerican(2008),p.46.)

Myelintheory,asseenthroughtheeyesofDr.Fields,isimpressive.Butwhatstayedwithmewaswhatheshowedmenext:aglimpseintoadeep-practicingbrain.Wewalked down the narrow hall to a colleague's office and sawwhatlooked like an undersea image out of Jules Verne: glowing green squidlikeshapes against a field of black, their tentacles reaching for slender fibers.Thesquids,Fieldsinformedme,areoligodendrocytes—oligos,inlablingo,thecellsthatproducethemyelin.Whenanervefiberfires,theoligosensesit,grabshold,and starts wrapping. Each tentacle curls and extends as the oligo squeezescytoplasmoutofitselfuntilonlyacellophanelikesheetofmyelinremains.Thatmyelin,stillattachedtotheoligo,proceedstowrapoverandoverthenervefiberwith unworldly precision, spiralingdownon each end to create the distinctivesausageshape,tighteningitselflikeathreadednutalongthefiber.“It's one of themost intricate and exquisite cell-to-cell processes there is,”

Fields said. “And it's slow. Each one of thesewraps can go around the nervefiberfortyorfiftytimes,andthatcantakedaysorweeks.Imaginedoingthattoanentireneuron,thenanentirecircuitwiththousandsofnerves.Itwouldbelikeinsulatingatransatlanticcable.”*3

Sothere's thepicture inanutshell:each timewedeeplypracticeanine-ironswingoraguitarchordorachessopening,weareslowlyinstallingbroadbandinour circuitry.We are firing a signal that those tiny green tentacles sense; theyreact by reaching toward the nerve fibers. They grasp, they squish, and theymake anotherwrap, thickening the sheath. They build a littlemore insulationalong the wire, which adds a bit more bandwidth and precision to the skillcircuit,whichtranslatesintoaninfinitesimalbitmoreskillandspeed.Struggleis


notoptional—it'sneurologicallyrequired:inordertogetyourskillcircuittofireoptimally,youmustbydefinitionfire thecircuitsuboptimally;youmustmakemistakesandpayattentiontothosemistakes;youmustslowlyteachyourcircuit.Youmustalsokeepfiringthatcircuit—i.e.,practicing—inordertokeepmyelinfunctioningproperly.Afterall,myelinislivingtissue.To sum up: it's time to rewrite themaxim that practicemakes perfect. The

truthis,practicemakesmyelin,andmyelinmakesperfect.Andmyelinoperatesbyafewfundamentalprinciples.1. Thefiringofthecircuitisparamount.Myelinisnotbuilttorespondtofondwishes

orvagueideasorinformationthatwashesoveruslikeawarmbath.Themechanismisbuilttorespondtoactions:theliteralelectricalimpulsestravelingdownnervefibers.Itresponds to urgent repetition. In a few chapters we'll discuss the likely evolutionaryreasons,butfornowwe'llsimplynotethatdeeppracticeisassistedbytheattainmentofaprimalstate,onewhereweareattentive,hungry,andfocused,evendesperate.

2. Myelin is universal.One size fits all skills.Ourmyelin doesn't “know”whether it'sbeing used for playing shortstop or playing Schubert: regardless of its use, it growsaccording to the same rules.Myelin ismeritocratic: circuits that fire get insulated. IfyoumovedtoChina,yourmyelinwouldwrapfibersthathelpyouconjugateMandarinverbs.Toputitanotherway,myelindoesn'tcarewhoyouare—itcareswhatyoudo.

3. Myelin wraps—it doesn't unwrap. Like a highway-paving machine, myelinationhappens in one direction. Once a skill circuit is insulated, you can't un-insulate it(exceptthroughageordisease).That'swhyhabitsarehardtobreak.Theonlywaytochange themis tobuildnewhabitsbyrepeatingnewbehaviors—bymyelinatingnewcircuits.

4. Agematters.Inchildren,myelinarrivesinaseriesofwaves,someofthemdeterminedbygenes,somedependentonactivity.Thewaveslastintoourthirties,creatingcriticalperiodsduringwhichtimethebrainisextraordinarilyreceptivetolearningnewskills.Thereafterwecontinuetoexperienceanetgainofmyelinuntilaroundtheageoffifty,whenthebalancetipstowardloss.Weretaintheabilitytomyelinatethroughoutlife—thankfully,5percentofouroligos remain immature,always ready toanswer thecall.Butanyonewhohastriedtolearnalanguageoramusicalinstrumentlaterinlifecantestifythatittakesalotmoretimeandsweattobuildtherequisitecircuitry.Thisiswhythevastmajorityofworld-classexpertsstartyoung.Theirgenesdonotchangeastheygrowolder,buttheirabilitytobuildmyelindoes.

Ononelevel,thestudyofmyelinsoundslikeanexoticnewneuroscience.Butonanotherlevel,myelinissimilartoanotherevolution-builtmechanismyouuseeveryday:muscles.Ifyouuseyourmusclesacertainway—bytryinghardtoliftthingsyoucanbarelylift—thosemuscleswillrespondbygettingstronger.Ifyoufireyourskillcircuitstherightway—bytryinghardtodothingsyoucanbarelydo,indeeppractice—thenyourskillcircuitswillrespondbygettingfasterandmorefluent.


Viewsaboutouruseofmuscleshavechanged.Untilthe1970srelativelyfewpeopleranmarathonsorpursuedbodybuilding;thosewhodidandexcelledwereconsidered to possess a special gift. Thatworldview flippedwhenwe learnedhowthehumancardiovascularsystemactuallyworks:thatwecanimproveitbytargetingouraerobicoranaerobicsystems,thatwecanstrengthenourheartandmusclesbypushingourselvestooperateattheouteredgesofourability—liftingaslightlyheavierweight,ortryingtorunaslightlyfartherdistance.Itturnedoutthat regular people could become bodybuilders or marathoners gradually, bytappingintothepowerofthemechanism.Thinking about skill as amuscle requires a big adjustment—youmight say

thatwehavetobuildanewcircuitofunderstanding.Forthelastcenturyandahalf, we've understood talent through a Darwin-inspired model of genes andenvironment, a.k.a. nature and nurture. We've grown up belieing that genesimpart unique gifts, and that environment offers unique opportunities forexpressingthosegifts.We'veinstinctivelychalkedupthekindofsuccessweseein remote, impoverishedhotbeds likeBrazil's soccer fields to thevaguenotionthat underdogs try harder and want it more. (Never mind that the world isbrimmingwithmillionsofdesperatelypoorpeoplewhotrydesperatelyhardtosucceedatsoccer.)Butthemyelinmodelshowsthatcertainhotbedssucceednotonly because people there are trying harder but also because they are tryingharder in therightway—practicingmoredeeplyandearningmoreskill.Whenwelookmoreclosely, thosehotbedsaren't reallyunderdogsatall.LikeDavid,theyhavefoundtherightleverageagainstGoliath.

ANDERSERICSSON'SBIGADVENTURE

Myelinscienceisstillinitsearlydays.Asoneneurologisttoldme,untilafewyears ago all the world's myelin researchers could have fit into a singlerestaurant.“Whenitcomestomyelin,weknowperhapstwopercentofwhatweknowaboutsynapses,”Fieldssaid.“We'reonthefrontier.”This doesn't mean the scientists who are studying myelin fail to see its

massivepotential,orthatthenewmodeldoesn'tinfluencethewaytheyseetheworld. (When Fields and I played pool at his house, he commented that he“hasn'tmyelinatedhispool-playingcircuits thatmuch.”)But itdoesmean thatthey harbor a deep yearning for a major, broad-based study to investigatemyelin'srelationshiptohumanskillandlearning.This isnosmallwish.The idealmyelinstudywouldbebiblical inscope. It


wouldexaminealltypesofskill,inallconceivableenvironments.Itwouldbeaproject worthy of Noah, requiring someone obsessed enough to track andmeasure each species of skill, then to metaphorically march a miles-longprocession of ballplayers, artists, singers, chess players, and physicists into asinglemassiveinquiry.Tomyelinresearchers,nowbusilyprobingpetridishes,thenotionofsuchagrandstudyisromantic,irresistible,andutterlyoutlandish.Whatkindofperson—whatkindofmaniacallyenergeticNoah—wouldtakeonsuchaproject?ThisiswhereAndersEricssonentersourstory.Ericssonwasbornin1947ina

northern suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. As a boy, Ericsson idolized famousexplorers, in particular Sven Anders Hedin, Scandinavia's turn-of-the-centuryversion of Indiana Jones. Hedin was an irresistible character: a supremelytalented linguist, archaeologist, paleontologist, artist, and geographerwho hadexplored the far reaches of Mongolia, Tibet, and the Himalayas, routinelycheatingdeathandwritinghighlyregardedbooks.Fromwithintheconfinesofhis small suburban bedroom, Ericsson studied Hedin's works, envisioning hisownworldstodiscoverandexplore.Ashegrewolder,however,Ericsson'sdreamsencountereddifficulties.Most

of theworld's frontiersappeared tohavebeenexplored, theblankspotson themapfilledin.AndunlikeHedin,Ericssonappearedtobemostlywithouttalent.Whilehewasdecent atmath, hewas fairlyhopeless at soccer andbasketball,languages,biology,andmusic.Whenhewasfifteen,Ericssondiscoveredhewasgoodatchess,regularlywinninglunchtimematchesagainsthisfellowstudents.Itseemedhe'ddiscoveredhistalent—forafewweeks.Thenoneoftheboys—oneof theworst players in thegroup, in fact—suddenly improvedand startedtrouncingEricssoneverytime.Ericssonwasmad.Hewasalso curious. “I really thought about this a lot,”he said. “Whathad

justhappened?Whycouldthatboy,whomIhadbeatensoeasily,nowbeatmejust as easily? I knew he was studying, going to a chess club, but what hadhappened, really, underneath? From that point on I deliberately tried to avoidgetting really good at something. I gradually became more obsessed withstudyingexpertsthanwithbeingone.”Inthemid-1970sEricssonwasstudyingpsychologyattheRoyalInstituteof

Technology. At the time the field of psychology was in an awkward state oftransition, stretched between two divergent schools of thought: on one hand,SigmundFreudandhisghostlyclosetfulofunconsciousurges;ontheother,B.F.Skinnerandasteely-eyedbehavioristmovementthattreatedhumansaslittlemore than collections ofmathematical inputs and outputs. But the world was


changing. In universities in England and the States, a movement called thecognitive revolution was beginning. This new theory, founded by a diversegroup of psychologists, artificial-intelligence experts, and neuroscientists, heldthat the human mind operated like a computer that had been designed byevolution, and that it obeyed certain universal rules. As fate would have it,Sweden itselfwas enjoying agolden ageof success in art and sport: a skinnyunknown namedBjörnBorgwaswinningWimbledon, IngmarBergman ruledworldcinema,IngemarStenmarkdominatedskiing,andABBAwasconqueringpopmusic. InEricsson'smind, all of thesedisparatedatamingled,givinghimwhat he'd been looking for: fresh territory to explore.Whatwas talent?Whatmade successful people different from the rest of us? Where does greatnesscomefrom?“I was looking for an area that gave me freedom,” Ericsson said. “I was

interested in how people accomplish great things, and at the time, that wasviewedasoutsidethenormalscopeofinquiry.”Ericsson wrote his 1976 dissertation on the usefulness of verbal reports—

people'saccountsof theirownmental states—asa tool forunderstanding theirperformance.Hisworkcaught the attentionofpsychologist-economistHerbertSimon,apioneerofthecognitiverevolutionwhowouldshortlycollectaNobelPrize ineconomicsforhisworkondecision-making.SimonrecruitedEricssonto come to America, and by 1977 Ericsson was working alongside Simon atCarnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, investigating basic questions ofhumanproblem-solving.Characteristically,Ericsson'sfirstprojectwastoexploreoneofpsychology's

mostsacredtenets:thebeliefthatshort-termmemoryisaninnate,fixedquality.A famed 1956 paper by psychologist George Miller, called “The MagicalNumberSeven,PlusorMinusTwo,”establishedtherulethathumanshort-termmemorywaslimitedtosevenpiecesofindependentinformation(andgaveBellTelephonereasontosettleonseven-digitphonenumbers).Thelimitwascalled“channel capacity,” and the capacitywas believed to be as fixed as height orshoesize.Ericsson set out to test Miller's theory in the simplest possible way: by

trainingstudentvolunteers to increase theircapacity formemorizingstringsofdigits, as a newdigit arrived once per second.To the scientific establishment,Ericsson'sexperimentseemedeccentricifnotdownrightnuts,theequivalentofattempting to train people to increase their shoe size. Short-termmemorywashardware.Sevendigitswasthelimit;itdidn'tchange.


WhenoneofEricsson'sstudentvolunteersmemorizedaneighty-digitnumber,thescientificestablishmentwasn'tsurewhattothink.Whenthesecondvolunteersurpassed one hundred digits, Miller's number seven seemed to have beenreplaced by amagic of a different sort. “People were blown away,” Ericssonremembered. “They couldn't believe that therewasn't a universal limit. But itwastrue.”Ericsson showed that the existingmodel of short-termmemorywaswrong.

Memorywasn'tlikeshoesize—itcouldbeimprovedthroughtraining.AndthiswaswhenEricssonhadaninsight:aglimpseofanunexploredterritoryworthyofhisheroHedin. Ifshort-termmemorywasn't limited, thenwhatwas?Everyskillwasaformofmemory.Whenachampionskierflewdownahill,shewasusingstructuresofmemory, tellinghermuscleswhat todoandwhen.Whenamastercellistplayed,hetoowasusingstructuresofmemory.Whywouldn'ttheyallbesubjecttothesamesortoftrainingeffect?“Traditional theory said that hardware was a limit,” Ericsson said. “But if

people are able to transform the mechanism that mediates performance bytraining, thenwe'reinanentirelynewspace.Thisisabiologicalsystem,notacomputer.Itcanconstructitself.”So began Ericsson's thirty-year odyssey through the kingdom of talent.

Ericsson explored all dimensions of skilled performance, studying nurses,gymnasts, violinists, and dart players; Scrabble players, typists, and S.W.A.T.officers.Hedidnotmeasuretheirmyelin.(He'sapsychologist,notaneurologist,and besides, diffusion tensor imaging hadn't been invented yet.) Instead hestudied the talent process from an equally vital angle: he measured practice.Specifically,hemeasuredthetimeandcharacteristicsofpractice.Along with his colleagues in this field, Ericsson established a remarkable

foundation of work (documented in several books and most recently in theappropriately Bible-size Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and ExpertPerformance).ItscentraltenetisaGibraltar-likestatistic:everyexpertineveryfieldistheresultofaroundtenthousandhoursofcommittedpractice.Ericssoncalledthisprocess“deliberatepractice”anddefineditasworkingontechnique,seeking constant critical feedback, and focusing ruthlessly on shoring upweaknesses. (Forpracticalpurposes,wecanconsider“deliberatepractice”and“deeppractice”tobebasicallythesamething—thoughsincehe'sapsychologist,Ericsson's term refers to themental state, not tomyelin. For the record, he isattracted to the idea. “I find the correlation [between myelin and skill] veryinteresting,”hetoldme.)


AlongwithresearcherslikeHerbertSimonandBillChase,Ericssonvalidatedhallmarks like theTen-YearRule, an intriguing finding dating to 1899,whichsaysthatworld-classexpertiseineverydomain(violin,math,chess,andsoon)requires roughly a decade of committed practice. (Even the astonishing chessprodigyBobbyFischerputinninehardyearsbeforeachievinghisgrandmasterstatus at age seventeen).This rule is oftenused todetermine the ideal start oftraining:forexample,intennisgirlspeakphysicallyatseventeen,sotheyoughtto start at seven; boys peak later, so nine is okay. But the Ten-Year, Ten-Thousand-HourRule hasmore universal implications. It implies that all skillsarebuiltusingthesamefundamentalmechanism,andfurtherthatthemechanisminvolvesphysiologicallimitsfromwhichnooneisexempt.Inmostminds,Ericsson'swork inspiresasingularand instinctiveobjection:

Whataboutgeniuses?What aboutyoungMozart's famousability to transcribeentirescoresonasinglehearing?Whataboutsavantswhosaunteruptoapianoor a Rubik's Cube and are instantly, magically brilliant? Ericsson and hiscolleaguesreplywithcool,irrefutablestacksofnumbers.InGeniusExplained,Dr. Michael Howe of Exeter University estimates that Mozart, by his sixthbirthday,hadstudied3,500hoursofmusicwithhisinstructor-father,afactthatplaces his musical memory in the realm of impressive but obtainable skill.Savants tend to excel within narrow domains that feature clear, logical rules(piano and math—as opposed to, say, improvisational comedy or fictionwriting). Furthermore, savants typically accumulatemassive amounts of priorexposure to those domains, through such means as listening to music in thehome.Thetrueexpertiseofthesegeniuses,theresearchsuggests,residesintheirability to deep-practice obsessively, evenwhen it doesn't necessarily look likethey're practicing. As Ericsson succinctly put it, “There's no cell type thatgeniuses have that the rest of us don't.” That's not to say that a minusculepercentageofpeopledon'tpossessaninnate,obsessivedesiretoimprove—whatpsychologist EllenWinner calls “the rage to master.” But these sorts of self-drivendeeppracticersarerareandareblazinglyself-evident.(Aruleofthumb:ifyouhavetoaskwhetheryourchildpossessestheragetomaster,hedoesn't.)If we overlay Ericsson's research with the new myelin science, we get

somethingapproachingauniversal theoryof skill that canbe summedup inatemptinglyconciseequation:deeppractice×10,000hours=world-class skill.Butthetruthis,life'smorecomplicatedthanthat.Thetruthis,it'sbettertousetheinformationasa lens throughwhichwecanilluminatehowthetalentcodeworks, to uncover hidden connections between distant worlds, to ask strangequestions,like:whatdotheBrontësistershaveincommonwithskateboarders?


*1IfirstencounteredmyelinwhileworkingonanarticleontalenthotbedsforPlay:TheNewYork Times Sports Magazine and stumbled across a footnote to a 2005 study entitled“ExtensivePianoPracticingHasRegionallySpecificEffectsonWhiteMatterDevelopment.”Icontactedmyelinresearchers,andwithinthefirsttensecondsofthefirstconversation,Iheardaneurologistdescribemyelinas“anepiphany.”*2AlsointheskillsofacertainTourdeFrancecyclist.Forapreviousbook,IhadspentayearfollowingLanceArmstrong as he prepared forwhat iswidely considered to be theworld'stoughestrace.Whilethephysicaldemandswereunique,there'snoquestionthatArmstrong'smentalapproach—themaniacalfocusonerrors,thedesiretooptimizeeverydimensionoftherace,therestlesseagernesstooperateattheedgesofhis(andeveryoneelse's)abilities—addeduptoaone-mancliniconthepowerofdeeppractice.*3Adarker,morevividway toappreciatemyelin's role in skilldevelopment is to considerdiseases that attackmyelin.British cellist Jacqueline duPrémysteriously lost her ability toperform at age twenty-eight and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis eight months later.Suchdiseasesarequiteliterallytheoppositeofacquiringskill,astheydestroymyelinwhileleavingtheconnectionsbetweenneuronsmostlyintact.


Chapter3TheBrontës,theZ-Boys,andtheRenaissance

Excellenceisahabit.

—Aristotle

THEGIRLSFROMNOWHERE

In thevastriverofnarratives thatmakeupWesternculture,moststoriesabouttalentarestrikinglysimilar.Theygolikethis:withoutwarning,inthemidstofordinary, everyday life, a Kid from Nowhere appears. The Kid possesses amysterious natural gift for painting/math/baseball/physics, and through thepowerofthatgift,hechangeshislifeandthelivesofthosearoundhim.*1

Ofallthecompellingstoriesofyouthfultalent,thestoryoftheBrontësistersis tough to beat. Its essential arc was established by ElizabethGaskell in her1857LifeofCharlotteBrontë. Itwent like this: faroff in theremotemoorsofHaworth,WestYorkshire,withinadraftyparsonageruledbytheiricy,tyrannicalfather, three motherless sisters named Charlotte, Emily, and Anne wrotemarvelousbooksbeforedyingatayoungage.InGaskell'stelling,theBrontës'story was a tragic fable, and the most magical part was that the childrenproduced several of the greatest works of English literature: Jane Eyre,WutheringHeights,AgnesGrey,andTheTenantofWildfellHall.Theproofoftheirdivinegift,Gaskellwrote,wastheseriesoftinybookstheBrontëscreatedas children, books that wove fantastical stories of imaginary kingdoms calledGlasstown,Angria,andGondal.AsGaskellrelated,“Ihavehadacuriouspacketconfidedtome,containingan

immenseamountofmanuscript,inaninconceivablysmallspace;tales,dramas,poems, romances, written principally by Charlotte, in a handwhich is almostimpossibletodecipherwithouttheaidofamagnifyingglass…Whenshegivesway to her powers of creation, her fancy and her language alike run riot,sometimestotheverybordersofapparentdelirium.”Tiny books, delirium, supernaturally gifted children—it's high-octane stuff.

Gaskell'sbookestablishedasturdytemplateintowhichmostsubsequentBrontëbiographieshavefaithfullyslid,inpartduetothescarcityoforiginaldocuments.Gaskell's narrative has been employed for a film, a stage play, and amoralitytale.There'sjustoneproblemwithGaskell'snarrative:itisn'ttrue.Toputitmore


precisely,therealstoryoftheBrontësisevenbetter.The real story of the Brontës was uncovered by Juliet Barker, an Oxford-

trainedhistorianwhospentsixyearsascuratoroftheBrontëParsonageMuseumin Haworth. Scouring sources locally as well as across Europe, Barkerassembled a trove ofmaterial that had gonemostly unexamined. In 1994 shesystematically demolished Gaskell's myth with a 1,003-page firehose ofscholarshipcalledTheBrontës.InBarker'swork,afreshpicturecomesintofocus.ThetownofHaworthwas

notaremoteoutpostbutamoderatelybusycrossroadsofpoliticsandcommerce.The Brontë home was a far more stimulating place than Gaskell portrayed,repletewithbooks,currentmagazines,andtoys,overseenbyabenign,tolerantfather. But the myth Barker upends most completely is the assertion that theBrontëswerenatural-bornnovelists.Thefirstlittlebooksweren'tjustamateurish—agiven,sincetheirauthorsweresoyoung—theylackedanysignsofincipientgenius. Far from original creations, they were bald imitations of magazinearticles and books of the day, in which the three sisters and their brotherBranwell copied themes of exotic adventure and melodramatic romance,mimickingthevoicesoffamousauthorsandcribbingcharacterswholesale.Barker's work conclusively establishes two facts about the Brontës' little

books. First, they wrote a great deal in a variety of forms—twenty-two littlebooks averaging eighty pages each in one fifteen-month period—and second,theirwriting,whilecomplicatedandfantastical,wasn'tverygood.*2AsBarkerputit,“Theirslap-dashwriting,appallingspelling,andnon-existentpunctuationwellintotheirlateteenageyearsisusuallyglossedover[byBrontëbiographers],asisthefrequentimmaturityofthoughtandcharacterization.Theseelementsinthe juveniliadonotdetract fromtheBrontës'achievement inproducingsuchavolumeof literature at so early an age,but theydoextensivelyundermine theviewthattheywerebornnovelists.”Deep practice andmyelin give us a betterway to look at theBrontës. The

unskilledqualityoftheirearlywritingisn'tacontradictionoftheliteraryheightstheyeventuallyachieved—it'saprerequisitetoit.Theybecamegreatwritersnotinspiteofthefactthattheystartedoutimmatureandimitativebutbecausetheywere willing to spend vast amounts of time and energy being immature andimitative,buildingmyelinintheconfined,safespaceoftheirlittlebooks.Theirchildhood writings were collaborative deep practice, where they developedstorytelling muscles. As Michael Howe wrote of the Brontës in GeniusExplained,“Thefactthatthecreativeactivityofwritingaboutaninventedworldwasajointexercisecontributedenormouslytotheauthors'enjoyment.Itwasa


marvelous game, inwhich each participant eagerly ingested and responded totheirsibling'slatestinstallment.”Towriteabook,evenatinyone,istoplayaparticularkindofgame.Rules

must be formed and obeyed. Characters must be conceived and constructed.Landscapes must be described. Lines of narrative must be puzzled out andfollowed. Each of these can be thought of as a distinct action, the firing of acircuit that's linked to other circuits.Written far from parental eyes, removedfromanyformalpressure,thelittlebooksfunctionedastheequivalentofaLinktrainer,aplacewheretheBrontësistersfiredandhonedmillionsuponmillionsof circuits, tangled and untangled thousands of authorial knots, and createdhundreds of works that were utter artistic failures except for two redeemingfacts:eachonemadethemhappy,andeachonequietlyearnedthemabitofskill.Skill is insulation that wraps neural circuits and grows according to certainsignals.When Emily Brontë'sWutheringHeights was published in 1847, reviewers

marveled at the author's originality. Here was a complex masterpiece ofimaginative storytelling, featuring the frightening, fascinating character ofHeathcliff,abroodingoutsiderwhoseonlyredeemingcharacteristicwashislovefor free-spirited Catherine, who tragically marries the wealthy, refined EdgarLinton. Critics were right to marvel but wrong about the originality. In thescribbles of the little books, we can find all the elements waiting to beassembled:themistypoeticlandscape(calledGondal),thedarkhero(christenedJuliusBrenzaida),theheadstrongheroine(AugustaGeraldineAlmeda),andtherichsuitor(LordAlfred).Seeninthislight,it'snotsurprisingthatEmilyBrontëwasabletowritethestorysowell.Afterall,shehadbeendeep-practicingitforquitesometime.

THEMYELINSKATERS

Inthemid-1970stheworldofskateboardingwasturnedupsidedownbyasmallgroupofkidswhocalledthemselvestheZ-Boys.Abandoflanky,sun-bleachedteenagersfromasurfshopnearVenice,California,theZ-Boysskatedinawayno one had ever seen. They did aerial maneuvers. They scraped their boardsalong curbs and handrails. They carried themselves with a punk-outsidersensibilitythatwenowrecognizeasthesport'slinguafranca.Mostusefullytheyhad a gift for dramatic timing, making their debut at the Bahne-CadillacSkateboard Championship in Del Mar, California, in the summer of 1975.According to witnesses, the Z-Boys were mysterious outsiders, rawboned


geniuseswhohaddescendedonthepreviouslysedatesportwithalltheimpact,ifnotthesubtlety,ofGenghisKhan.AstheLondonGuardiansummedupinitsreview of a documentary film on the Z-Boys: “[A]s [Jay]Adams slips into aloosecrouch,grabsbothendsofhisboard,andhopsupanddowninaburstofexplosiveenergyspeedingacross theplatform, the implication isclearalready.In his charge, a skateboard is no longer a piece of sporting equipment, like atennis racket. Instead, it's more like an electric guitar, an instrument foraggressive,irreverent,spontaneousself-expression.”Butsuchexpressionwas, in fact, far fromspontaneous.Mostof theZ-Boys

werededicatedoceansurfers,havingloggedhundredsofhoursontheirboards.On days when the waves failed to show, they had simply transferred theiraggressive, low-slung surfer style to the street. Another factor in their rise togreatness wasmore accidental: the discovery, in the early 1970s, of a uniquetool, a myelin accelerant that allowed them to improve their circuitry at aferociousspeed.Thattoolwasanemptyswimmingpool.Thanks to a combination of drought, fire, and overbuilt real estate, the

neighborhoodsofBelAirandBeverlyHillswererifewithemptypools.Findingthemwaseasy:theZ-Boysdrovedownsidestreetswithascoutstandingontheroofoftheircar,scanningoverfencesforlikelyvenues.Ridingthepool'ssteepcurved walls was difficult at first. The first days brought some spectacularwipeouts (not to mention more than a few police calls from surprisedhomeowners). But sometime in 1975, in a moment that qualifies asskateboarding's version of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, the Z-Boysachievedliftoff.“Whenwehitthepoolsitbecameareallyseriousactivity—themostserious

activity,” said Skip Engblom, part owner of the surf shop and the group's defactomentor. “Every timewehad to go bigger, faster, longer.Wewere like apainterwithanewcanvas.”InSkateboardKings,a1978Britishdocumentary,askater identifiedasKen

describedtheexperience.“Poolridingisdefinitelythehardest thingtodo,”hesaid. “It takes whole-body coordination, so different than any other part ofskateboarding…Butlike,whenI'mdoingit,Iflashoncertainthings,likeI'mcominguptothetop,Ihitthetop,andIfeelifit'sagoodconnectionornot,andthatwilleithersendmeintoaslideacrossthetop,orelseIgoforair…You'rejustoutthere,andthenyoujustwanttomakeit,andyoufeelmoreairandmoreairandifyouhaveitundercontrolyoujusttotallygoforit.”ConsiderthepatternofactionsthatKendescribes.Thespaceandshapeofthe


pool constrain his efforts and narrow his focus to certain flashes, to certainconnectionsthatareeithermadeornotmade.It'sflyhighorfallhard:thereareno gray areas, no mushiness. Once inside the pool, sliding along the steepsurface, the Z-Boys had to play by the rules of the new game. From a deep-practicepointofview,theemptyswimmingpoolcreatedaworldnotunlikethatofthelittlebooksoftheBrontësistersorthefutsalcourtsofBrazil.Circuitsarefired and honed. Mistakes are made and corrected. Myelin flourishes. Talentblooms. Skill is insulation that wraps neural circuits and grows according tocertainsignals.Forthelastfewhundredyears,Westernculturehasunderstoodandexplained

talentusing the ideaofunique identity—the tumbleofcosmicdice thatmakeseveryone different, and a few lucky people special. According to that way ofthinking,theBrontësandtheZ-Boyssucceededbecausetheywereexceptional—mysteriously gifted outsiders, destiny-kissed Kids from Nowhere. Seenthrough the lens of deep practice, however, the story flips. Uniqueness stillmatters,butitssignificanceresidesinthewaytheBrontësandtheZ-Boysdothethingsnecessarytobuildtheirremarkableskills:firingtherightsignals,honingcircuits,makingtinybooksandfillingthemwithchildishstories,searchingoutempty swimming pools so that they can spend hours riding and falling insidethem.Thetruthis,plentyofotherYorkshiregirlshadlivesjustasparochialandconstrictedastheBrontës',justasplentyofotherLosAngeleskidswereasedgyandcoolastheZ-Boys.Butmyelindoesn'tcareaboutwhoyouare.Itonlycaresaboutwhatyoudo.We've seen how deep practice and myelin illuminate the talents of small

groupsofpeople.Nowlet'sapplythoseideastotwoslightlylargergroups.First,we'll lookat theartistsof theItalianRenaissance.Thenwe'll lookataslightlybiggergroup:thehumanspecies.

THEMICHELANGELOSYSTEM

AfewyearsagoaCarnegieMellonUniversitystatisticiannamedDavidBankswroteashortpaperentitled“TheProblemofExcessGenius.”Geniusesarenotscattereduniformlythroughtimeandspace,hepointedout;tothecontrary,theytendtoappearinclusters.“Themostimportantquestionwecanaskofhistoriansis,‘Whyaresomeperiodsandplacessoastonishinglymoreproductivethantherest?’”Bankswrote. “It is intellectually embarrassing that this is almostneverposed squarely … although its answer would have thrilling implications foreducation,politics,science,andart.”


Bankssingledoutthreemainclustersofgreatness:Athensfrom440B.C.to380B.C.,Florencefrom1440to1490,andLondonfrom1570to1640.Ofthesethreenone is so dazzling or well documented as Florence. In the space of a fewgenerations a city with a population slightly less than that of present-dayStillwater,Oklahoma,produced thegreatestoutpouringof artistic achievementtheworldhaseverknown.Asolitarygeniusiseasytounderstand,butdozensofthem,inthespaceoftwogenerations?Howcouldithappen?Bankslistedtheconventional-wisdomexplanationsfortheRenaissance:

Prosperity,whichprovidedmoneyandmar

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