Practice makes… some difference
July 25, 2014
The Boston Globe:
IN HIS BEST-SELLING BOOK “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell popularized the notion—based on a 1993 article in a psychology journal—that top performers were mainly differentiated by extensive practice (10,000+ hours), and not innate ability. However, a new analysis of dozens of studies on the matter does “not support these strong claims,” finding instead that “practice explained 26% of the variance in performance for games, 21% for music, 18% for sports, 4% for education, and less than 1% for professions.” The importance of practice was particularly reduced for activities with low predictability, and when practice and performance were measured more objectively.
Read the whole story: The Boston Globe
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