Rather it came from their desire to get better. This drive to practice did not come from the best musicians simply enjoying deliberate practice more. “he best musicians spent very little time on playing music for fun and less time on leisure than other less accomplished expert musicians and nonmusicians of the same age.” Contrary to the assumption that elite performers and experts are intrinsically driven to improve, Ericsson finds evidence that, “deliberate practice is not inherently enjoyable, but individuals engage in it as an instrumental means to improve their performance to attain the highest levels.”Ĭomparing accomplished musicians with those of lesser achievement, Ericsson finds: It’s no surprise that people tend not to like mental strain. This idea, that learning is most effective when it as done at a level of mental strain above what would typically constitute enjoyment, is a big part of the logic motivating ultralearning. Yet, he also argues that this is “inconsistent” with flow. Hence, skilled performers may enjoy and seek out flow experiences as part of their domain-related activities, but such experiences would not occur during deliberate practice.”Įricsson believes deliberate practice-a specific type of practice characterized by immediate feedback, focused improvement and mental strain-is the activity that produces mastery. “he characteristics of flow are inconsistent with the demands of deliberate practice for monitoring explicit goals and feedback and opportunities for error correction. But what about learning?Īnders Ericsson, the psychologist behind deliberate practice, argues that flow doesn’t lead to mastery : Often your performance is best during a flow state-you may have felt your best games or work come from the flow of effortless focus. Maybe during a game, sports or even your work. You stop feeling self conscious, with your attention being completely absorbed by the task at hand.Ĭhances are you’ve felt flow many times before. The concept of flow, first introduced by psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihályi, is the enjoyable feeling that happens when you are totally immersed in an activity.
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