Bounce

'Bounce' is one of the more interesting books I've read recently. The author, Matthew Syed, argues against the "talent" view of expertise (the notion that extremely talented people are naturally born geniuses or superstars) and details an interesting alternative: the "practice" view of expertise. Analyzing expertise primarily through the lens of sports (a topic that the author, a Olympic table tennis player and sports writer, knows best), Syed shows that the world's most successful athletes (and musicians, and mathematicians, and chess players) were not born with superhuman talents but rather, often from an early age, spent at least 10,000 hours of purposeful practice honing their skill. 'Purposeful' is the key word here: practicing something poorly for 10,000 hours won't make one a world-class expert. But 10,000 or more hours of intense, concentrated practice, like that undertaken by Tiger Woods or Andre Agassi, is what makes someone, well, Tiger Woods or Andre Agassi. 'Bounce' helps us rethink how we learn skills, and as a result how we educate ourselves and our children. The practice theory of expertise even has implications for business. Syed's analysis of the fall of Enron (because they were too focused on 'talent' and not enough on expertise) is one of the most interesting discussions of that corporate debacle I've yet read. Syed writes extremely well, which one would expect from a professional writer. The concepts expressed are clear, supported by interesting anecdotes; overall the book is a real joy to read.

I'm surprised at some of the 3 star reviews here. I do a lot of reading on this subject and I thought "Bounce" was one of the best books I've read about nature vs nurture with respect to excellence. Sure Syed may not answer ever question imaginable on the topic of outliers, but I think that has more to do with the fact that we still don't have all the answers. I think this book covers the topic of outliers better than any other book or article out there (and I am a fan of Gladwell's "Outliers" but I think "Bounce" is a better book). I have recommended this book to everyone I know who is interested in this topic.

"Bounce" by Matthew Syed is an extremely well-written new book about the science of success and how top performers in any field - athletes, musicians, physicians, chess grandmasters, and child prodigies for example - achieve excellence. Syed is a wonderful writer and every chapter is interesting, engaging, and packed with extensive research, case studies, and fascinating psychological experiments. With example after example and story after story, Syed cuts through the social perception of how excellence is achieved and gives us evidence describing exactly how it occurs. "Bounce" is an inspiring read and shows how practice and hard work are still the values that create champions; not talent, genetics, or gifts from above. You will enjoy learning how all the heros and stars that we know and look up to achieved at the highest level including Mozart, Roger Federer, Picasso, Mohammad Ali, David Beckham, Venus and Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Se Ri Pak, Jack Nicklaus, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Wayne Gretzky, and Olympic athletes across a variety of sports. This book is about the secrets of success - the mental and physical attributes excellence requires - that are not really secrets at all. Bravo!

This is an interesting and informative book related to performance improvement and competition, mostly focusing on sports, but with applicability to work situations as well. It is the latest of a number of books that attack specific situations by applying combinations of neurological development, psychology, and economics. In this regard, it is somewhat similar to books on behavioral finance insofar as it takes a multi-disciplinary approach to analyzing human performance. As such it provides novel and, to me, refreshing insights about human performance that could have applicability to anyone who is interested in achieving, or encouraging, success. The book covers a lot of ground, but generally speaking, it posits that people are not "born" stars - excellence is a function of time and commitment. Thus, reach "expert" status in most activities, including sports, you must: 1. Practice - lots of it. 10,000 hours are required to achieve expertise. The book argues that successful decisions to problems characterized by complexity are propelled not by innate ability, but experience built up by practice. 2. Push your limits. You must fail in order to succeed via "purposeful practice." Syed argues that mistakes are not a problem -- it's how you learn from them. 3. Find motivation. In this part of the book, there is a discussion on the influence of commonality and role models in the development of superior performers 4. Believe in yourself, even against the odds. Syed discusses both the importance of placebo effect, and the role of superstition in sports and life in successive chapeters. The book also discusses topics such as the development of decisional heuristics in top athletes/performers, and the final chapter, entitled "Are Blacks Superior Runners?" is dedicated to debunking racial myths in performance. The focus of this work is on sports, but it has equal applicability to life - whether in trying to succeed in the working world, learn a new language, or even raising children (hint: praise effort, not results). The writing itself is crisp, using sentence structures and methods found in many newspapers rather than in more academic works. It uses interesting anecdotes from a number of areas, whether they be Mozart's or Tiger Woods' childhoods, a fatal airplane crash from 1972, or the flawed advice given to Enron my the consultancy McKinsey rather than the dry writing style you might expect from a book covering the topics mentioned above. In all, I really enjoyed this book. If you like Freakonomics, Soccernomics, behavioral finance, or sports in general, chances are you'll find it to be a good read. The only complaint I have is that the chapter on drugs in sport, while entertaining, does not necessarily fit in with the overall flow of the book itself, but that is a minor complaint.

The 10,000 hour long road to stellar performance begins with 1 flow-caliber practice moment at a time. In my reading, "Bounce" effectively demystifies talent by getting the ego out of the way, emphasizing practice, leveraging intrinsic motivation and process-focus (rather than outcome-focus). This highly readable book offers tons of well-researched sophisticated performance psychology and offers a no-nonsense path to perfect performance without perfectionism. An up-to-date, must resource for athletes, coaches, parents, and zero-sum competitors/players of any kind. Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Present Perfect: a Mindfulness Approach to Letting Go of Perfectionism and the Need to Control" (New Harbinger, June 2010)