Critical Review of The Sweet Spot
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Daniel Toll 20130412 Critical Review of The Sweet Spot Daniel Coyle argues in the first chapter of his book The Talent Code, (Coyle, 2009) that talent can be grown using special techniques that stimulates deep learning. In his previous works Daniel encountered very talented people, and encountered locations that seemed to create an awful lot of talented people. If talent can come from a place, it cannot be only random potential, or? Daniel writes in the Q&A section of The Talent Code web page: “We’ve all heard of these kinds of magical placesit’s such a cliché that we nearly take them for granted. But the sheer scale of Spartak’s accomplishment really struck me: a single club, with one crummy indoor court, in a freezing climate had outdone a wealthy nation of 300 million. It got me looking in other places – and sure enough, every talent had its own version of Spartaka tiny island that, against all odds, produced gigantic amounts of talent.” (Q&A, The Talent Code Web Page, 2013) Daniel Coyle thus embarked on a quest to find out why certain locations seemed to create a lot of talented people. Coyle went to Brazil, to find out why that country has created so many great soccer players, like Pele and Ronaldo? Coyle finds an answer in futsal, a south american variant of soccer, played in a much smaller space(even indoors), and with a small but heavier ball (p.2526). Due to the tight set up, a futsal player touches the ball 6 times more than an outdoor soccer player would in the same time (p.28). This forces the players to learn more intensely, make more mistakes, and thereby learn. Can futsal explain why Brazil creates so many talented players? Coyle argues so, and uses the example of Brunio, who practices a futsal move called elastico by pushing himself to trying, failing, and trying again (p.13). This was a pattern that Coyle found on his journey: Talented people seemed to practice in that very special way, they struggled, slowed down, made errors, and corrected those errors (p.18). Coyle also uses the story of Edwin Link, the developer of an airplane simulator, as evidence for how important it is to practice on the edge of your ability(p.2324). The simulator puts the pilot into a position, where he can safely make mistakes over and over again and learn from them, without the risk of injury (p.24). On page 19 Robert Bjork explains that we need to treat the brain as a “living structure” and by struggling we build new connections (the “scaffolding”, p.19) and thereby learn new things. Robert also states that, when we are working on the edge of our ability we are in the “sweet spot” (p.19), we make mistakes and learn(p.20). Coyle calls this deep practice. To enforce the thought of deep practice into the mind of the reader, Coyle asks us to do an memorization exercise. The exercise consists of two columns of connected wordpairs like ocean and breeze(p.16). The difference between the left and right column is that the right column lacks one letter from the word like “bread/b_tter”. Coyle continues to tell us, that in studies of that kind, people remember 300 percent more from the column with the incomplete words than from the other column. Coyle argues that the “microsecond of struggle”(p.17) when you solve the puzzle is the key to deep practice. But why is that?
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Critical Review of The Sweet Spot
Transcript of Critical Review of The Sweet Spot
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DanielToll20130412
Critical Review of The Sweet SpotDanielCoylearguesinthefirstchapterofhisbookTheTalentCode,(Coyle,2009)that
talentcanbegrownusingspecialtechniquesthatstimulatesdeeplearning.InhispreviousworksDanielencounteredverytalentedpeople,andencounteredlocationsthatseemedtocreateanawfullotoftalentedpeople.Iftalentcancomefromaplace,itcannotbeonlyrandompotential,or?DanielwritesintheQ&AsectionofTheTalentCodewebpage:
Weveallheardofthesekindsofmagicalplacesitssuchaclichthatwenearlytakethemforgranted.ButthesheerscaleofSpartaksaccomplishmentreallystruckme:asingleclub,withonecrummyindoorcourt,inafreezingclimatehadoutdoneawealthynationof300million.Itgotmelookinginotherplacesandsureenough,everytalenthaditsownversionofSpartakatinyislandthat,againstallodds,producedgiganticamountsoftalent.(Q&A,TheTalentCodeWebPage,2013)
DanielCoylethusembarkedonaquesttofindoutwhycertainlocationsseemedtocreatealotoftalentedpeople.
CoylewenttoBrazil,tofindoutwhythatcountryhascreatedsomanygreatsoccerplayers,likePeleandRonaldo?Coylefindsananswerinfutsal,asouthamericanvariantofsoccer,playedinamuchsmallerspace(evenindoors),andwithasmallbutheavierball(p.2526).Duetothetightsetup,afutsalplayertouchestheball6timesmorethananoutdoorsoccerplayerwouldinthesametime(p.28).Thisforcestheplayerstolearnmoreintensely,makemoremistakes,andtherebylearn.CanfutsalexplainwhyBrazilcreatessomanytalentedplayers?Coylearguesso,andusestheexampleofBrunio,whopracticesafutsalmovecalledelasticobypushinghimselftotrying,failing,andtryingagain(p.13).ThiswasapatternthatCoylefoundonhisjourney:Talentedpeopleseemedtopracticeinthatveryspecialway,theystruggled,sloweddown,madeerrors,andcorrectedthoseerrors(p.18).
CoylealsousesthestoryofEdwinLink,thedeveloperofanairplanesimulator,asevidenceforhowimportantitistopracticeontheedgeofyourability(p.2324).Thesimulatorputsthepilotintoaposition,wherehecansafelymakemistakesoverandoveragainandlearnfromthem,withouttheriskofinjury(p.24).
Onpage19RobertBjorkexplainsthatweneedtotreatthebrainasalivingstructureandbystrugglingwebuildnewconnections(thescaffolding,p.19)andtherebylearnnewthings.Robertalsostatesthat,whenweareworkingontheedgeofourabilityweareinthesweetspot(p.19),wemakemistakesandlearn(p.20).Coylecallsthisdeeppractice.
Toenforcethethoughtofdeeppracticeintothemindofthereader,Coyleasksustodoanmemorizationexercise.Theexerciseconsistsoftwocolumnsofconnectedwordpairslikeoceanandbreeze(p.16).Thedifferencebetweentheleftandrightcolumnisthattherightcolumnlacksoneletterfromthewordlikebread/b_tter.Coylecontinuestotellus,thatinstudiesofthatkind,peopleremember300percentmorefromthecolumnwiththeincompletewordsthanfromtheothercolumn.Coylearguesthatthemicrosecondofstruggle(p.17)whenyousolvethepuzzleisthekeytodeeppractice.Butwhyisthat?
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Why do we learn when we struggle?Iwouldarguethatonereasonformerememberingtherightcolumnbetterintheexercise
onpage16isthatitmakesmefeelcleverandsatisfiedwhenIovercometheobstacle.Thesolutiontotheproblemfeelslikeitiswithinreach.Fromthatperspectivethesweetspotiswhenyoufailbutstillbelievethatyouareabletoovercomethatmistake.Yougetthefeelingof,Ialmosthadit!andyouarepositivelystimulatedtotryitagain.Talentedpeoplerecognisethat,andforthemamistakeisnotafailure,butaseductivepotentialforimprovement.
CoyletouchessomethingthatIwouldliketoemphasize,itisthevariationofthedifferentexercisesthatenablesdeeplearningandnotjustthemanysmallmistakes.Inthecaseofthesoccerplayerswithfutsalbackground,theyhavepracticedinamorevariedway,notonlyoutdoorswithwidegapsbetweenplayers,butalsoinclosequarters(p.27).Thesamegoesforthepilots,theybecomeexpertsinthesimulatorbecauseitenablesthemtovarytheirtraining.DavidSousa,theauthorofHowthebrainlearnsexplainsthisbychangesinthebrain.Ifyouencounterthesamestimulusoverandoveragainalimitedpatternsofbrainneuronsgetsreinforced,butwithvariationofthestimulus,newpatternsemerge(Sousa,2006).
Howeverpracticingdeeponthissmallscaleisnotenough.Iwouldarguethatinordertoachieveexpertisethatyouneedaplan,connectingallthesmalllecturesintoavisionofwhatyouwillbecome.ThatstructuredplanseemstobelargelymissingfromthisfirstchapterofDanielsbook.
IalsothinkthattheCoylesfirstchapterlacksanexplanationofthemotivationsforwhytalentedpeoplewantstokeeponlearning.FormeitissomucheasiertolearnwhenI'mhavingfun.IthinkthathastodowiththepositiveattitudeIcanapplytothemistakesImake.Ifyouarehavingagoodtime,youaremoreinclinedtotestnewanddifferentstrategiesandfailingisnotsohard.Perhapstohavingfun,ismoreimportantforlearning,thanaspecifictrainingtechnique?
ReferencesCoyle,D.,2009.TheTalentCode.1sted.Bantam,pp.1129.
Sousa,D.2006.HowtheBrainLearns.3rded.SAGEPublications,pp79
TheTalentCodeWebPage,2013.QuestionandAnswer[online],Availableat:[Accessed28March2013].
