If you’ve ever wanted to improve at a skill, sport or job or become the best at whatever you do, but have been told you’re not talented enough, didn’t start early enough, or that you don’t have 10,000 hours to spare, then do we have the show for you! Today we’ll be talking with Anders Ericsson, a preeminent leader in new science of expertise, and the researcher behind Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule from his book Outliers. He’s also the author of a brand-new paradigm shifting book I believe and hope will set the stage, for backbone of education and performance for decades to come. Today we’ll talk about expertise, what it is, where it comes from, how you can achieve it, what we all can learn from others who have it, how to help develop it in ourselves and our children, and why we can almost all dramatically improve our performance in almost any area we put our minds and hearts too. That plus we’ll look at homo erectus and homo exercens, Maverick, Viper, and Iceman, Blue Bunny Ice-Cream, Paganini and the Broken Strings, and What a Banana Monk and a Pot have to do with anything. Questions and Topics Include: Expertise – how you can achieve How we can develop expertise in almost any area we put our hearts and minds in What does Mozart have to do with expertise Why Mozart wasn’t really ‘born’ with his music skills Why perfect pitch can be trained (particularly early on) How a study of Japanese children showed they were all able to learn perfect pitch What powerful lesson we can learn from the Sakihabara study How learning Mandarin as a first language can help you as a musician or singer What is the story of Steve Falloon What our memory can be expanded much more than we ever thought How we can improve our memory What is the new science of expertise? What’s the typical approach we take to practice or learning and why doesn’t it get us very far? What can we learn about Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule (business, career) that came from Anders Ericsson's work. Why doing what you already know how to do is NOT very effective practice What is the right sort of practice? What’s the importance of getting outside of your comfort zone How to improve endurance running performance How to improve running speed How the right training helps the body to adapt tremendously What is purposeful practice and feedback? Why tasks require the “correct” action. Why the 10,000 hour rule needs to be corrected Why practice doesn’t make perfect Why experience is not necessarily an advantage or the answer Why feedback is so important for improvement How do we harness adaptability What do the brains of London Cabbies have to do with anything? What do Maverick, Viper and Iceman (and the Top Gun Program) have to do with anything? How to refine and entrench your new skills Why it’s so important to have a situation where you can make decisions and get immediate feedback How to simulate tests (such as GRE, LSAT, SAT or otherwise) Natalie Coughman Olympic Medalist – how she had a breakthrough moment in training by shifting her focus What’s wrong with the concept of “will power” How do you build your motivation up? What’s the importance of a teacher or a mentor? Why parents should find an activity they can do with their children Why having an expert on your side is so important Why having a parent who supports and helps the child is so important How important belief in your child is, even if they don’t display talent The story of Olympic Runner Gunder hagg Why belief that you can do something is so powerful Why we should all make the assumption we can do something (until really proven otherwise) Why giving children an early experience of what training can do for their performance is so important Laslo Polgar and Clara and their experiment with their kids Stages to improve our performance First improve the motivational aspect – get motivation first What does it mean to “get serious” Why a good parent wants to start with 15-30 minutes and gives good feedback Wh