Talent Is Overrated (30 page)

The overview of the role of knowledge in expert systems, quoted in this chapter, is also from the
Cambridge Handbook.
The chapter is Bruce G. Buchanan, Randall Davis, and Edward A. Feigenbaum, “Expert Systems: A Perspective from Computer Science.”

The quotations of Jeffrey Immelt are from “Growth as a Process: The HBR Interview,”
Harvard Business Review,
June 2006.

The paper proposing the theoretical framework of long-term working memory is K. Anders Ericsson and Walter Kintsch, “Long-Term Working Memory,”
Psychological Review 102,
no. 2 (1995), pp. 211-45.

The research on memory for key events in a written description of a baseball game is in H. L. Chiesi, G. J. Spilich, and J. F. Voss, “Acquisition of Domain-Related Information in Relation to High and Low Domain Knowledge,”
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 18
(1979), pp. 257-74.

An overview of the evidence showing how the body changes in response to years of deliberate practice, along with references to many supporting articles, can be found in Ericsson's article on experience and deliberate practice in the
Cambridge Handbook.
The findings on brain changes are summarized in the following chapter from the
Cambridge Handbook:
Nicole M. Hill and Walter Schneider, “Brain Changes in the Development of Expertise: Neuroanatomical and Neurophysiological Evidence About Skill-Based Adaptations.”

Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, being long past copyright protection, is easily available online.

The research on self-regulation, which is the basis for the guidelines on performing deliberate practice as a part of work, is summarized in the following chapter of the
Cambridge Handbook:
Barry J. Zimmerman, “Development and Adaptation of Expertise: The Role of Self-Regulatory Processes and Beliefs.”

The reference to Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School and his ability to educate himself on a given company through twenty hours of library research is from a highly memorable personal conversation almost thirty years ago.

The research on how expert and novice firefighters perceive fires differently is in G. A. Klein,
Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998).

The reference to Judy Pahren of Capital One Financial and the quotations of Jeffrey Immelt, Kenneth Chenault, Noel Tichy, Colonel Thomas Kolditz, David Nadler, John McConnell, Ram Charan, and Colonel Stas Preczewski are from personal interviews.

Much of this chapter is based on research conducted by Hewitt Associates for its 2007 Top Companies for Leaders project. This research involved more than five hundred companies around the world. Hewitt collected extensive information from each one, conducted interviews with executives, and performed financial analyses. The resulting voluminous data, including interview transcripts, were made available to me as
Fortune
magazine's representative.
Fortune
published an extensive summary of the findings, as well as an accompanying article by me, in the edition of October 1, 2007.

The material on teams and the many ways they go wrong is based on an article I wrote for
Fortune
titled “Why Dream Teams Fail” in the edition of June 12, 2006.

The quotation of Adrian Slywotzky is from a personal interview.

Much of the evidence presented in this chapter is summarized in Professor Robert W. Weisberg's paper, “Creativity and Knowledge: A Challenge to Theories,” cited in the notes for chapter 2.

The research by Dean Keith Simonton, showing that the relation between education and creative eminence looks like an inverted
U,
is in D. K. Simonton,
Genius, Creativity, and Leadership
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984).

The famous experiments of the Luchinses, involving jars of varying capacities, are described in A. S. Luchins and E. H. Luchins,
Rigidity of Behavior
(Eugene, Ore.: University of Oregon Press, 1959).

The research by Professor John R. Hayes on composers, painters, and poets is in J. R. Hayes, “Cognitive Processes in Creativity,” in J. A. Glover, R. R. Bonning, and C. R. Reynolds, eds.,
Handbook of Creativity
(New York: Plenum, 1989).

Professor Howard Gardner's fascinating study of seven famous creators is Howard Gardner,
Creating Minds
(New York: Basic Books, 1993).

Professor Weisberg's detailed descriptions of how Watson and Crick found the structure of DNA, and of Watt's work on the steam engine and Whitney's work on the cotton gin, is in his book,
Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius,
cited in the notes for chapter 2. This is also where he discusses the possible origins of Coleridge's
Kubla Khan.

The
New York Times
article on the development of the FLY computer pen and related matter is Janet Rae-Dupree, “Eureka! It Really Takes Years of Hard Work,”
The New York Times,
February 3, 2008.

The comments on Big-C, little-c, and mini-c creativity are in Ronald A. Beghetto and James C. Kaufman, “The Genesis of Creative Greatness: mini-c and the Expert Performance Approach,” in
High Ability Studies 18,
no. 1 (2007), pp. 59-61.

The McKinsey study on innovation is Joanna Barsh, Marla M. Capozzi, and Jonathan Davidson, “Leadership and Innovation,”
The McKinsey Quarterly,
no. 1 (2008), pp. 37-47.

The quotation of Professor Raymond S. Nickerson is from Raymond S. Nickerson, “Enhancing Creativity,” in Robert J. Sternberg, ed.,
Handbook of Creativity
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

The quotation of David N. Perkins is from David N. Perkins, “The Nature and Nurture of Creativity,” in B. F. Jones and L. Idol, eds.,
Dimensions of Thinking and Cognitive Instruction
(Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1990).

The paper on Nobel Prize winners and other innovators, and why they're getting older, is Benjamin F. Jones, “Age and Great Invention,” NBER Working Paper no. 11359 (2005).

Dean Keith Simonton's comments about the importance of the supporting environment are in his paper in the
Cambridge Handbook,
entitled “Historiometric Methods.”

Benjamin Bloom's important study of creative development in young people was cited in the notes for chapter 2.

The research showing the importance of home environments that are both structured and stimulating is described in M. Csikszentmihalyi, K. Rathunde, and S. Whalen,
Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success and Failure
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Much of the research of aging cited here, including the research showing that pianists suffer normal age-related declines except in piano-related skills, is summarized in a chapter of the
Cambridge Handbook:
Ralf Th. Krampe and Neil Charness, “Aging and Expertise.”

The account of Julio Franco's training regimen is in Ben Shpigel, “Breakfast at Julio's,”
The New York Times,
March 1, 2006, p. D1.

The quotation of Karl Malone is from an excellent general article on aging athletes: Martin Miller, “Raising the Bar at 40,”
The Los Angeles Times,
September 29, 2003.

The study that found that elite figure skaters spent more time working on jumps they couldn't do is Janice M. Deakin and Stephen Cobley, “A Search for Deliberate Practice: An Examination of the Practice Environments in Figure Skating and Volleyball,” in Janet L. Starkes and K. Anders Ericsson, eds.,
Expert Performance in Sports: Advances in Research on Sports Expertise
(Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics, 2003).

Csikszentmihalyi's observations suggesting a possible source of intrinsic motivation that seems to mesh well with the characteristics of deliberate practice are in his acclaimed book: M. Csikszentmihalyi,
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
(New York: Harper & Row, 1990).

A good overview of Teresa Amabile's very extensive work on creativity and its motivation, with references to specific studies and articles, is in Mary Ann Collins and Teresa M. Amabile, “Motivation and Creativity,” in Robert J. Sternberg, ed.,
Handbook of Creativity
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

A summary of Winner's argument, with many fascinating examples, is in Ellen Winner, “The Rage to Master: The Decisive Role of Talent in the Visual Arts,” in K. Anders Ericsson, ed.,
The Road to Excellence: The Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports and Games
(Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996).

The quotation of Josh Waitzkin about the sad fate of many of the most accomplished child chess players is from the
Psychology Today
article on the Polgar sisters cited above.

The quotation of Jeffrey Immelt, and the description of him and Steve Ballmer sitting side by side at Procter & Gamble as twenty-two-year-olds, is from a personal interview with Immelt.

The description of the multiplier effect is in Stephen J. Ceci, Susan M. Barnett, and Tomoe Kanaya, “Developing Childhood Proclivities into Adult Competencies: The Overlooked Multiplier Effect,” in Robert J. Sternberg and Elena L. Grigorenko, eds.,
The Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

The quotation of Anders Ericsson about parenting as the research frontier is from a personal interview.

Index

ABB

ability.
See
innate ability

achievement.
See
excellence

after-action review

age

advanced

brain plasticity and

child prodigies

cumulative hours of practice and

discontinuation of deliberate practice

early business career training

physical advantages of early practice

physical decline

time available for deliberate practice

agendas, competing

Allaire, Paul

Allen, Paul

Amabile, Teresa

American Express

Ameritech

Apple

Arakawa, Shizuka

Armstrong, Michael

AT&T

Auer, Leopold

automaticity

 
Backhaus, Wilhelm

Baker, Russell

Ballmer, Steven

Barnett, Susan M.

Barsh, Joanna

Beatles

Beghetto, Ronald A.

Berkshire Hathaway

Blink
(Gladwell)

Bloom, Benjamin S.

Bossidy, Larry

Braden

brain structure

Bring Up Genius!
(Polgar)

Brooks, Herb

Brown, Richard

Buchanan, Bruce G.

Buffett, Warren

Burke, Dan

business-model life span

 
capital, financial and human

Capital Cities/ABC

Capital One Financial

Capozzi, Marla M.

Ceci, Stephen J.

Charan, Ram

Chase, William

Chernow, Ron

chess

compensation for age-related decline

computer program

deliberate practice experiment

direct practice model

IQ and

knowledge of

chess
(cont.)

memory and

standards of performance

ten-year rule

children

brain development

cumulative hours of practice

discouragement

high ability

multiplier effect

passion for achievement

physical advantages of early practice

supportive home environment

time available for deliberate practice

coaches.
See
teachers, coaches, mentors

Coca-Cola

Coffin, Charles

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Colgate-Palmolive

commoditization

community leadership roles

competing agendas

computing power in global labor market

Conaty, Bill

concentration and focus

conflict, unresolved

confrontation of reality

Creating Minds
(Gardner)

creativity.
See
innovation

Crick, Francis

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly

culture.
See
organizational culture

customers, information available to

 
Davidson, Jonathan

Davis, Randall

de Bono, Edward

deliberate practice

age-related decline and

amount of

automaticity, avoidance of

discontinuation of

examples of

feedback

framework for

goals

for great performance

hard work

improvement, unlimited capacity for

independent work

knowledge development

limitations and variables

memory development

mental effort in

models

perception, sharpening of

physical changes attributable to

program design

repetition

stretching of abilities

teachers, coaches, and mentors

unpleasantness of

in work