Deliberate Practice
K. Anders Ericsson studied expert performers for decades. His research, synthesized in Peak (2016), identified what separates those who plateau from those who keep improving: deliberate practice — structured activity with the explicit goal of improving performance.
The key features: clear goals just beyond current ability, full concentration during practice, immediate feedback on results, and repetition with refinement. Ten thousand hours of noodling on guitar produces a mediocre guitarist. Ten thousand hours of deliberate practice produces expertise.
Most practice isn’t deliberate. Playing tennis matches is fun but doesn’t systematically address weaknesses. Deliberate practice means isolating the weak backhand, hitting hundreds of backhands, adjusting technique based on results. It’s not playing — it’s training.
This explains why experience alone doesn’t create expertise. Doctors with decades of practice don’t diagnose better than residents — unless they receive feedback and actively refine. Experience without feedback is just repetition of habits, including bad ones.
Deliberate practice is effortful and often unpleasant. You’re constantly at the edge of your ability, failing, adjusting, failing again. The enjoyment comes later, from the capability built. During practice, the feeling is struggle.
The structure requires a teacher or at least a clear model. Someone must design the exercises, identify weaknesses, provide feedback. Self-directed deliberate practice is possible but harder — you can’t see your own blind spots clearly.
Ericsson pushed back against “talent” explanations. What looks like natural ability is usually more and better practice, starting earlier. The violinists in top orchestras practiced more hours than those in lower orchestras. Always.
The uncomfortable implication: improvement is available to anyone willing to structure their practice. Plateaus reflect practice structure more than ability limits.
Go Deeper
Books
- Peak by K. Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool — Ericsson’s own synthesis of 30 years of research. The source.
- The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance edited by Ericsson — Academic but comprehensive.
- Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin — Business-oriented take on the same research.
- Range by David Epstein — The counterpoint: when broad experience beats early specialization.
Essays
- Ericsson’s 1993 paper “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance” — The original research. Highly cited, highly readable.
Related: [[flow]], [[chunking]], [[apprenticeship]]