TC: ch.2

Chapter Summary
The key to building any skill lies in your brain's production of myelin (white matter). The way to build up myelin on nerve fibers is to repeat the desired action, correcting mistakes as you do so. Layers of myelin can increase the speed of impulses and shorten refractory periods to the extent that the circuit is up to 3000 times faster! Oh my goodness!! This process takes an incredible amount of time and energy, so, as Coyle says, "if you don't love it, you'll never work hard enough to be great." Myelin does not unwind itself - what is learned is learned. Myelin comes in waves, mostly in childhood and continuing until the 30's. Coyle describes the work of  psychologist Anders Ericsson on short term memory and talent, wherein he discovered that people can train themselves to increase their ability to remember. He applied this theory to other fields of psychology and found that there was no limit to the brains ability to "construct itself.." He also discovered that the most talented individuals in every field practiced over 10,000 hours. This magical number seams to denote the amount of time needed to attain mastery. The only difference between a genius/prodigy and an average person is the "rage to master."

Key Concepts
The optimal state of mind for practice is "attentive, hungry, focused, even desperate."
The only way to fix bad habits is by replacing them with new, good ones. You cannot undo a habit.

Key Terms
automaticity: the brains ability to make skills automatic/ to program automatic responses.
oligodendrocytes: cells that produce myelin and wrap it around nerve fibers. Can I get an injection of oligos?

Making Connections
According to Ericsson, if you practice 2 hours a day you could master a skill in... about 13 years. Huh.
Although few of us are born with the "rage to master," we can fake it till we become it.
There is no way around dedicated practice, not even for geniuses. I suspect that prodigies like Mozart owe their incredible skill, not just to the exposure to music they experienced in early childhood, but also to the fact that children's brains form connections and myelinate them faster and better than adult's brains. With that in mind, it makes sense that Mozart had such incredible skills after the 3,500 hours of practice he was estimated to have. That's why it's important to sing to/ read to/ talk to/ love kids folks!