Emily F. TC chapter 3 summary: We get to see several examples of groups of people who have developed major talent, and why this happens. The Bronte sisters were average little girls with active imaginations. They were not unusually gifted with writing as youngsters, they just had ample opportunity to practice. Their play was writing stories. The Z-Boys also had lots of opportunity to practice their skateboarding, again as play. During the Renaissance, craft guilds were established, which set in place the apprenticeship system. This created practice-rich opportunities for young people to do things that they loved. Pre-programmed skill sets, such as a baby horse that walks immediately after birth, would be cool, but are biologically expensive and a gamble for people. So we have something even more amazing-- programmable brains with the capacity to learn and do anything.
Key Concept: Our brains are amazing! If we put work into anything, we can build myelin and grow to be experts. This is hopeful for anyone, because even masters didn't start out that way. They started very average, with lots of opportunities to practice.
Key Terms:craft guilds, apprentice
Making Connections: This is a hopeful chapter for me. I've spent a lot of my life thinking that I didn't have a lot of "natural ability" like other people seemed to. I think of the hours when I was a kid that I practiced singing just because I wanted to sound as good as I possibly could, and I realize that my brain was wrapping lots of myelin then. I also really like that the examples showed people who did what they loved to do, not because someone was making them. This tells me that effective practice comes when we are happy and striving to be better inside ourselves. Safety to make mistakes gives us room to have effective practice as well.
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