Patrice-Coyle-Ch. 3-4

 Chapter 3

Summary

This chapter debunked a lot of myths that come along with "genius". Most people don't become experts overnight. There is a process of failure, bad stories, wipeouts, and training. I found diving more into myelin very interesting. We are myelin beings. Our brains thrive on building myelin, which in turn builds skill. Working on those skills is us taking part of "the architecture of [our] own talent."

Application

My application is don't expect to be perfect on your first try. It's ok and expected to be crappy. It doesn't matter what level you start at as long as you start. This is a particularly difficult concept to accept because of high exceptions I have for myself and high expectations I've created that I believed others have for me. If I start- myelin will begin to develop and skill will grow.

Chapter 4

Summary

The quote at the beginning of the chapter stood out to me, "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." I feel a major takeaway from this chapter is to practice the failures again and again. I really appreciated the breakdown of how to deep practice effectively: (1) chunk it up through three steps. First absorb the whole thing, then break it into chunks, lastly slow it down. Chunking builds myelin over and over as you focus on section by section, phrase by phrase, note by note. I liked Abraham Lincoln's quote in this section,"I am slow to learn and slow to forget what I have learned."(2) repeat it. A key thing to repetition is attentive repetition. Repetition is not equivalent to more practicing. Repetition in deep practice will be exhausting. (3) learn to feel it. Feel your mistakes. Have a tuned ear to what you are practicing. I liked the list of actions mentioned when struggling in the deep practice zone: pick a target, reach for it, evaluate the gap between the target and the reach, return to step one. If we don't struggle, we will not grow.

Application

I want to work on applying these steps in my practicing. I especially want to work on picking a target, trying it out, evaluating my attempt, and repeating. These steps and ways to practice will be helpful for me because I often don't know where to start so I don't. Having a sense of direction and purpose will be very helpful for me.