Practice vs. Talent

Successful athletes are made by the blood, sweat, and tears they put into honing their natural talents. Chess masters have played tens of thousands of games of chess. A concert pianist practices his craft every day, sometimes for hours on end.

Cognitive scientists are finding that mastery in almost any subject area looks the same. Hard work, practice, and the right tools pave the road to success in every field—easier things become fast and fluent, while the conscious mind has conceptual tools to tackle the toughest parts of problems.

Over the last 50 years, scientists have been studying the difference between how experts and novices work on problems, and have discovered some key things about expertise and what it takes to get there. One thing that happens when you practice is that some tasks become so natural you don't even think about them anymore. Some skills and conceptual frameworks are moved below the level of conscious thought—below the part of your mind that "talks" to you all the time.

Think about bicycle riding: after a few months of practice, a child no longer has a panicked internal conversation about, "What am I doing with the handlebars? How do I stop? Will I die?"

Instead, subconscious mental processes grow up, through practice, to handle the basic chores of keeping upright, steering, balancing, braking. This leaves the conscious mind free to focus on more complex goals, like "What's the fastest way to Billy's house from here?

All experts wind up with key, subconscious frameworks of understanding within their discipline. These frameworks are usually common to folks in the same discipline, trained in the same way. And these frameworks really do become subconscious—experts are often no longer even aware their expertise is organized along these lines, just as you may no longer know how to describe "how to ride a bike," or "how to read" in words.

We call these frameworks the Big Ideas , and our curriculum provides the right content and tools to ensure that with the right amount of practice, all kinds of minds can wrap themselves around and internalize the Big Ideas in each subject area.

Next Section:
Big Ideas: The "Big Ideas" will set them free