L·09
Learning & Memory
Practise at the Edge, With Feedback
Improvement comes from working just past your current ability on a specific weakness with immediate correction — not from hours.
- Evidence
- shaky
- Topic
- Learning
- Things to do
- 3
- Read
- 1 min
shakyHow strong is the evidence?
Real, but smaller and shakier than the story you have probably heard.
- Ericsson et al., 1993
- qualified by Macnamara, Hambrick & Oswald, 2014 meta-analysis
Why it works
The honest version: deliberate practice explains about 26% of variance in games, 21% in music, and only ~1% in professions. It is necessary and nowhere near sufficient — but within your control, which raw talent and circumstance are not.
What to do about it
- Name the specific sub-skill that is failing. “Get better at presenting” is not one; “stop trailing off at the end of sentences” is.
- Build a drill for it with a correctness signal inside the same session.
- Record yourself. The feedback you can't get from a coach, you can get from a recording.
Where people go wrong
Quoting “10,000 hours” as a law. Gladwell's round number is not in Ericsson's data, and Ericsson objected to it publicly.
Read next
- InterleavingMixing problem types during practice feels worse and performs better than doing them in blocks.proven
- Retrieval Beats ReviewTrying to recall something strengthens memory far more than reading it again. Rereading mostly builds confidence.proven
- SpacingThe same total study time, spread out, produces far more durable memory than massed together.proven
- Desirable DifficultyFluency is a false signal. Conditions that slow learning down usually improve retention.proven