How to become good at something? Straightforward: Practice, practice, and more practice. But it does not work that way.
Let me share a personal experience.
Some of batchmates in IIT were good instrument players and few had been playing it since age of 10 under abled teachers. As they practiced, they kept getting better and within few years, it was quite pleasant. However, soon, they plateaued – stopped getting better despite practicing regularly. They did not know how to make further progress.
Then, there was a courses of music floated under Humanities electives. And one such on violin not by a professor, but by a librarian. The lecturer had not completed his Ph.D. due to some personal problems, and hence was working in the library. And yet, his knowledge and passion were beyond amazing. Some of my friends who attended his sessions, improved their violin playing more than they had in years!
They kept telling me about this guy, as I too had some interest in music.
We kept trying to identify the enigma, what this guy did differently to trigger the sea change because one of the batchmate had previously learned from the likes of Dr. N Rajam. To decode his secret, I decided to join the course in final semester, no more under any pressure! I requested the instructor but he allowed only to audit the course without credits because I hadn't done elementary ones, the prerequisites. To be honest this is what I wanted too!
Finally the course started. Every class would start by playing a composition, which they would then discuss and dissect, while I was silently observing from the distance. I believe ,the skill which has repaid me more than my chemical engineering degree, or pretty much anything useful I have done is skill of observation.
And this guy did something different. Normally, student would play a full composition, notice the mistakes they made, and try to fix them when playing it again.
But this coach told them, “Don’t play the whole composition – just play one line of the composition and get the notes exactly right.”
Every time a student would try playing, he would identify the mistake and coach him on how to fix it. When he finally got that one line right, they would practice the next line.
Much later, when I came across Anders Ericsson’s book ‘Peak’, I realized why that violin coach was so effective – he was doing ‘deliberate practice’, which is the ‘secret’ of getting exceptionally good at anything.
Here is the idea of deliberate practice:
Set a next-level goal: Set a goal that is beyond your current level of competence. In my friend's case, it was to correctly play the notes in the first line of a musical composition.
Specific feedback from a coach on how to improve.
– This is what violin coach did extraordinarily well. He would show them how to hold the bow, how to change movement, etc.
– The feedback was very specific. He would not say, “Play this better.” Instead, he would show them exactly what to change.
Focused practice: Don’t just practice for hours without focus – the effort has to be specific to fix the errors/mistakes.
In areas of human endeavor where there is a standardized roadmap to becoming exceptional (e.g., playing musical instruments, sports), a knowledgeable coach can bring about magical improvement.
That is why in any sport, every good player/athlete has a coach. And it is not that Rafael Nadal’s or Djokovic’s coach is better than him – they can observe and give specific feedback. That is what brings improvement.
All this may be good but how do we apply it in our life? After all, we may not be able to hire a coach most of the time.
The answer lies in finding some feedback mechanism.
Whether we use a coach, a friend, or even a mirror – by hook or by crook, we need to find a way to get feedback.
In summary: Just naive practice is not the answer.
We need deliberate practice: Set next-level goals, get specific feedback, and do focused practice.
That is how Olympic athletes train. That is how chess champions train. And this is how we can train to be insanely good at anything.
There is no shortcut in life. Do the work. Follow deliberate practice. Results will come.
Hope you found this instructive.
