Peak-The Power of Purposeful Practice2/2

Words and expressions

This is naive practice in a nutshell: I just played it. 

in a nutshell = in a word/ in brief

“Now, not everyone will focus by hollering and pounding on a table, but Steve’s performance illustrates a key insight from the study of effective practice: You seldom improve much without giving the task your full attention.”

Pound - v

1.(grind, crush) + ‹spice, grain, garlic, drug›

to pound sth to/into sth     Eg.Pound the garlic to a paste

2.hit with fist/ tool

3.to pound on + ‹piano, keyboard, typewriter›

4.(throb)/sound noisily

illustrate = show... Eg. The graph/ chart/ table illustrates that...

Generally speaking, no matter what you’re trying to do, you need feedback to identify exactly where and how you are falling short. 

Eg. The supply fell short.

She took careful aim, but her arrow fell short.

It turns out that most of what doctors do in their day-to-day practice does nothing to improve or even maintain their abilities; little of it challenges them or pushes them out of their comfort zones. 

come to a conclusion, like "it results in"/ "lead to"...

He was above average, but he never got good enough to compare with Europe’s better players, much less the best.

This failing was a source of great frustration to him, but he had no idea why he couldn’t get any better. Today we understand: he never pushed himself, never got out of his comfort zone, never put in the hours of purposeful practice it would take to improve. He was like the pianist playing the same songs the same way for thirty years. That is a recipe for stagnation, not improvement.

frustration = disappointment

recipe

1. (list of ingredients)     a recipe for sth.(food) 

2. (means of achieving)     a recipe for business success or for succeeding in business

    a recipe for disaster(=cause) 

stagnation = stop

But sometimes you run into something that stops you cold and it seems like you’ll never be able to do it. Finding ways around these barriers is one of the hidden keys to purposeful practice.

without preparation/ completely

Whenever you’re trying to improve at something, you will run into such obstacles—points at which it seems impossible to progress, or at least where you have no idea what you should do in order to improve.This is natural. What is not natural is a true dead-stop obstacle, one that is impossible to get around, over, or through. 

obstacle = barrier

dead-stop

Eg. When things begin to blur and my mind is nearly at a dead stop, I know it’s time to take a break.

Summary

This section points out the key points of purposeful practice (has well-defined, specific goals /focused /involves feedback /requires getting out of one’s comfort zone)

The former experiment was compared with a case of naive practice, which explains it further that how and why purposeful practice works more efficiently in these cases.

Impression

In high school, while others were challenging themselves with hard math questions, I was just doing so-called naive practice and thinking that as we were all spending the same time on preparation of the examinations, the results must be similar. At that time we students, as well as teachers and parents, concluded the difference of grade as the diversity of efficiency. The fact is that those who stayed in their comfort zone and did naive practice do not have any efficiency. The way we think and do is sometimes much more important than how much we do, because working harder never equals to repeating or doing unnecessary work.

“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.”

deliberate practice = purposeful practice + particular approach    (can overcome the limitations of purposeful practice)