By Daniel Coyle
Studies of how the brain actually works and the secrets behind world-class performances in fields as diverse as sports and business are slowly being revealed. Author Daniel Coyle highlights how recent scientific research is overthrowing much of what we thought was true about the brain.
Talent is generally thought of as innate and fixed by our genetic code. One is either good in a field, such as accounting, or advised to find some other field of endeavour. This deterministic view of human potential is being overturned as world-class performance is increasingly viewed as grown, instead of being born into us and unchangeable.
In the past, neurons in the brain and their synapses were thought to be the primary players in human intelligence and performance. Learning consisted of making new connections between neurons and reinforcing those connections through practice and repetition. However, if recent discoveries are correct, the myelin sheaths surrounding each nerve and the white matter of the brain may also play a major role in learning and skill development.
Like the recent discoveries of junk DNA serving important functions in the body, the addition of myelin coverings to the nerves through a special type of practice, called deep practice, may be the key to world-class performance. Myelin serves roughly a similar role as insulation around copper telephone wires.
The typical neuron has a transmission speed of roughly 2 feet per second.
However, the improved myelin wrappings associated with deep practice can accelerate transmission speeds up to 200 miles an hour along neurons. In addition, the refractory period (the time between signals) is reduced to 1/30th of a normal neuron. If bundles of neurons can increase information processing speed by 3,000 times in comparison with untrained neurons, it could help explain how "talented" people can achieve near superhuman levels of performance. As an analogy, he reminds us of the speed of a dial up modem in comparison to the speed of a broadband Internet connection.
A special type of practice (deep practice) over a long period of time is one key to high performance. For example, hitting golf balls hundreds of times does not improve performance beyond a certain level. Breaking your golf swing into its component elements, slowly practicing each element separately over and over again, with immediate feedback, until your golf swing is perfect, can improve performance. High performers both work harder at improving their skills but also work smarter.
He also suggests that what he calls "ignition" is another key element for high performance. Deep practice requires commitment because it is really hard work. High performers consistently push the boundaries of their current abilities, which means they must accept mistakes and learn from them. He explores how such single minded drive to improve can arise.
This book- if accurate, as Daniel Coyle is not a scientist - suggests that all of us have massive undeveloped potential, particularly if we start learning something early in life. Our potential is not predefined by our genetic code, at birth, and talent in many fields is grown not born into us.
While a guy with a football player physique will not become a world class marathoner, he may be capable of a lot more than he thinks.
If accurate, this latest brain research has huge implications for our education system. In particular, early childhood education may be a key facilitator for enabling children to achieve spectacular results later in life.
The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle, can be found in the Prince George Public
Library in the non-fiction area.
- Reviewed by John Shepherd, former trustee for the Prince George Public
Library Board
Ill Fares The Land and Postwar
by Tony Judt
Judt, an acclaimed historian on both sides of the Atlantic, died this past summer of Lou Gehrig's disease. His legacy is well preserved in these two outstanding works.
In Ill Fares The Land, the last book published during his lifetime, Judt, aware his time was short, laid out his politics for all to see. In this short, blunt book, he blasts both sides of the political spectrum for abandoning the social democracies that took shape during the Depression and fully evolved in the years after the tragedies of the Second World War.
The rush to embrace the individual over the collective and to frame every policy decision in economic terms during the last 30 years has led to a serious erosion of social cohesion. The growing gap between rich and poor, the lack of government protection for individuals in need, the fading oversight of the economy, and the selling off of what were once essential government services has led to apathy and distrust in our fellow citizens.
These are the seeds from which revolutions rise, Judt argues, and he has history on his side to prove his point. He makes a passionate case for strong government that protects and aids the weakest citizens, provides essential services that are best served with public sector oversight (hospitals, schools, roads, etc.) and still allows business and industry the freedom to innovate and succeed.
These social democracies reached their zenith in Europe after the Second World War, an era Judt chronicles in his acclaimed book, Postwar. Europeans were united in a common purpose of rebuilding, to heal from the horrors of two wars and to fortify themselves against the Soviet threat to the east. As a result, governments became directly involved in every aspect of the lives of citizens while citizens actively engaged in the political process. The result was the difficult but ultimately fantastic rebirth of a continent.
Postwar and Ill Fares The Land by Tony Judt are both available in the
non-fiction section of the Prince George Public Library.
- Neil Godbout is the administrative communications coordinator at the
Prince George Public Library.
