Chapter – 2 Harnessing Adaptability According to Ericsson, if you are body builder it’s easier to track the changes in your biceps, triceps. quadriceps, pecs, delts, lats, traps, abs, glutes, calves and hamstrings. If you are running, biking or swimming to enhance endurance, you could track your progress by your heart-rate, your breathing, and things like that. But how could you measure your mental advancement? Let’s say, you have become an expert in algebra or some music instrument? Difficult, right? Because you can’t develop six-pack on your forehead. And, in case you think, there isn’t much going on in your brain, you are not alone. But then, make no mistake. There’s a growing evidence of that suggest that brain muscles expand in response to various sorts of training just like your muscles and cardiovascular systems in response to physical training. The Brains of London Taxi Drivers It’s not easy to become a London taxi driver. (And by the way,
Introduction In case if you are not aware, Professor Anders Ericsson’s research was the inspiration for the 10,000 rule. The rule which got highly popularized in Malcom Gladwell’s book “Outliers.’ However, Ericsson, is a little upset over Gladwell popularizing this concept, because he believes there's more to the 10,000 hour rule. According to him, simply pushing ourselves to achieve those 10,000 hours of practice, to specialize in a particular skill set, is not good enough if you really want to make a mark in your chosen niche. For 10,000 hours to be really fruitful, special focus should be on deliberate practice, as it is the only way forward to achieve greatness in life. But then, it doesn’t stop there. Ericsson suggests us to keep working hard on our skills even after completing those grueling 10,000 hours. To prove the theory of Deliberate Practice right, the author has cited various examples and experiments conducted by neurosciences on musicians, non musici