The key ideas

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool, 2016

An ordinary student learned to repeat eighty-two digits in sequence after two hundred hours, although his memory apparently had not changed. Anders Ericsson, whose research underlies the ten-thousand-hour rule, explains what actually happens when someone becomes an expert. And why he himself disputed that rule.

Who it is for

For anyone who has worked at something for years and wants to understand why progress has stopped, and for parents, coaches, and teachers.

The right sort of practice carried out over a sufficient period of time leads to improvement. Nothing else.

About the book

An ordinary Carnegie Mellon University student comes to a laboratory. Digits are read to him at one per second, and he repeats them. During the first few days, he can hold seven or eight digits, like almost anyone. After about two hundred hours of training, he repeats eighty-two.

How is that possible if his memory apparently has not changed?

Anders Ericsson studied experts for more than thirty years. Together with science writer Robert Pool, he wrote a book about the kind of practice that makes people better. The authors’ central claim is that where we tend to see an innate gift, there is often a particular kind of training. This is the authors’ position, and we will see where others dispute it.

Idea 1. Eighty-two digits

The student’s name was Steve Faloon. Ericsson conducted the experiment with psychologist Bill Chase in the late 1970s.

For several sessions, Steve hit a ceiling. Then he found a way forward. He was a runner and began hearing race times in the digits: three-four-nine-two became a near-record time for the mile. Groups of digits turned into meaningful chunks that could be stored in long-term memory.

Here is the answer to the opening puzzle: according to the researchers’ conclusion, Steve’s short-term memory capacity hardly changed. What changed was the way he packaged the digits.

A phone number is easier to remember if you can see someone’s birthday or the year of a famous event in it.

Improvement in a skill may involve a new structure that accommodates information more effectively, rather than an increase in “capacity.”

Read in Livria

About the author

Anders Ericsson was a Swedish psychologist and professor at Florida State University who spent decades studying expertise and introduced the concept of deliberate practice. He died in 2020. Robert Pool is an American science writer.

All books by this author: Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise Quiz

Terms from the book

  • Hippocampus
  • Deliberate practice
  • Purposeful practice: The authors’ term for training with a clear, small goal, full attention, feedback, and a step slightly beyond your usual level.
  • Naive practice: The authors’ term for repeating what you can already do without a goal or feedback. It may maintain your level but does little to raise it.
  • Mental representations: Ericsson’s term for internal patterns that allow an expert to see a situation in large, meaningful chunks. A working concept in the theory, rather than a separately measurable brain structure.
  • Perfect pitch: The ability to name or sing a note without reference to another sound. The authors believe it can largely be developed in early childhood.

All terms

Similar books