Peak

My 4 highlights

• Much of deliberate practice involves developing ever more efficient mental representations that you can use in whatever activity you are practicing.

• there is no such thing as developing a general skill. You don’t train your memory; you train your memory for strings of digits or for collections of words or for people’s faces. You don’t train to become an athlete; you train to become a gymnast or a sprinter or a marathoner or a swimmer or a basketball player. You don’t train to become a doctor; you train to become a diagnostician or a pathologist or a neurosurgeon.

• This is a major advantage of highly developed mental representations: you can assimilate and consider a great deal more information at once.

• So here we have purposeful practice in a nutshell: Get outside your comfort zone but do it in a focused way, with clear goals, a plan for reaching those goals, and a way to monitor your progress. Oh, and figure out a way to maintain your motivation.