Comments on: The Master of Many, Part 2

By: steph

steph — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:23:08 +0000

That’s a really interesting point/question, Belinda :) I kinda thought of that as just “learning”, similar to learning languages, where you borrow existing concepts or patterns you know, and create exceptions for what you haven’t encountered before. You’re making me wish I was a neuroscientist!

You might be interested in Edward T. Hall’s “Beyond Culture”, where he discusses fascinating paradigms as how “time” matters to different cultures, and many more such gems.

By: Belinda Darcey

Belinda Darcey — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:32:47 +0000

I wonder how the brain’s learning capacity is affected by a change in a person’s location? i.e. a change of country/culture. I suspect it accelerates learning. Having to function in a new culture, often in a new language, while also learning, say, a new instrument or just a regular college program… it must surely tax the brain in new ways. It’s emotionally exhausting, and at some point, every traveler “hits the wall” after a certain period of foreign cultural immersion — you know, that moment when you collapse in tears and just want to go home and eat familiar food and hear familiar language. And then somehow the next day, everything seems manageable. WTF is that?? Growth or a protective form of delusion? I don’t know, but *something’s* going on in the brain, that’s for sure.

Then compound that with years of a nomadic lifestyle and what do you get? An extremely agile brain. The capacity to learn not just a new subject, but new modes of learning, and from any source, regardless of race, creed, etc. In short, an expert in multi-level learning and communication. Sort of like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. While hopping on one leg. :) Is there a title for that?

By: steph

steph — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:48:46 +0000

Hi Bill,

Thanks for that important bit of detail and info – I guess there was plenty of truth to “practice makes perfect” ;)

Do you have any resources to the physiological side-effect from deep-practice, which states we can only effectively do this from 3-5 hours a day? (Perhaps I’ll find it in Coyle’s book?) This is something I have noticed from observation, so I’m interested in finding out more about it.

And… what happens if you’ve trained yourself to learn? Is it possible that that 5 hour limit can be stretched if you are exposing yourself to multiple activities? I wonder…

By: Bill Traynor

Bill Traynor — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:12:47 +0000

Good post!

One idea I’d like to bring to the fore is that the 10,000 hours spent at any particular pursuit must be spent in a specific way in order to reach expert or world class ability. In ‘The Talent Code’, by Daniel Coyle the physiological results of what he calls “deep practice” are increased production of myelin in the brain. The three basic rules of deep practice basically are to break a desired activity into learn-able chunks, repeat practicing each chunk individually, and finally to put the pieces together such that one can feel the new activity inherently. The latter is an oversimplification, however the idea is that with deep practice the production of myelin is maximized. Myelin, it turns out, is where learned skills are stored (so to be speak) in the brain. The unfortunate side effect of deep practice is that it can only be done effectively for 3-5 hours on average per day. So the 10,000 hour rule is more a generalized amount of time needed to complete enough deep practice necessary to be expert at anything. Simply logging the hours is not enough, one must continually push the boundaries of their ability on a daily basis. And I doubt that a day job does that for most people.

Coyle’s book is well worth a read, btw.