What People Get Wrong About Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice is one of the most popular ideas in learning and training. But as this idea has filtered into the mainstream with books from Malcom Gladwell and Anders Ericsson himself, some things have been lost. This video breaks down three things that many people get wrong about deliberate practice. 00:21 Mistake #1: Is 10,000 hours legit? 01:30 Where did 10,000 hours come from? 02:59 Mistake #2: What is the first step, again? 04:39 Physics lab example 07:27 Mistake #3: On “putting in the time.” Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: References: The “classic” piece on deliberate practice: Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological review, 100(3), 363. (available at Research/Explicit Instruction/Deliberate ) A comparison between what students do in introductory physics labs and what actual physicists do: Wieman, C. (2015). Comparative cognitive task analyses of experimental science and instructional laboratory courses. The Physics Teacher, 53(6), 349-351. (available at ) An explanation of where the 10,000 hour rule came from and why it’s wrong: