Peak

I just read an incredible story in the book, Peak: Secrets from the Science of Expertise by K. Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool.  If you've not heard of Ericsson, there's a good chance that you've at least heard about his research into what has come to be called "deliberate practice".  The story is about Niccolò Paganini, an Italian violinist and composer who lived in the late 18th century.  Apparently, Paganini was a virtuoso, the greatest violinist of his generation (and many today say that he is one of the greatest violinists of all time).  

Apparently, Paganini was playing a difficult piece to a packed concert hall, when one of the strings on his violin broke.  Violins have four strings, and at least during Paganini's day, they were made out of sheep intestines and broke fairly often.  Paganini was playing towards the climax of his musical piece, and the string just couldn't stand up to his forceful playing.  If you've ever seen a violin string snap, it is quite obvious to everyone around, so the audience gasped in disappointment.  Rather than stopping, however, Paganini kept on playing.  The audience was completely stupefied - the beautiful piece that he was playing did not change at all, even though he was only playing on three strings.  

As he continued to play, the unthinkable happened - another string snapped in two!  Again, rather than stopping, Paganini kept on playing and the audience couldn't tell any difference in his playing.  Towards the end of the piece, a third string broke - what rotten luck!  However, Paganini kept on playing.  The song was just as beautiful, even though he was playing on just one string.

Of course, the story quickly spread all around.  Paganini was such a great violinist, that he could play better on one string than other violinists playing on four!  Uncommon ability!  Natural talent!  Simply amazing.

Except - the strings didn't break on accident.  The whole sequence of events was a planned stunt.  Paganini had practiced playing the same piece on four strings first, and when he was comfortable doing so, he practiced on just three strings.  Once he had perfected that, he learned to play the piece on just two strings.  Finally, he practiced so that he could play on just one string.  He also knew how much pressure to apply to make the strings break.  The audience believed that Paganini was just incredibly unlucky, when in reality, he planned everything well in advance.  

I bring this story up because it has been cited as proof in the whole nature vs. nurture debate, when it comes to developing expertise.  The fundamental question is whether individuals are born with some genetically-determined talent or develop it over time through hard work, practice, and collective experience.  I've talked about a number of popular books that have been published in the last few years on this exact topic (including Peak: Secrets from the Science of Expertise), including Malcom Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success, David Epstein's The Sports Gene, Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown.  Here's How, and Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else.  K. Anders Ericsson is a strong proponent of the "nurture" theory (which led to his theory of deliberate practice).  

Ericsson provides several examples and studies in Peak that support the "nurture" side of this question.  He goes on to refute some of the more classic examples that support the "nature" side of the debate, including Paganini's case above.  The well-known story of the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has also been provided as evidence to support that experts are born with their talent.  Mozart was said to have composed his first symphony when he was 8 years old (and composed several shorter pieces when he was even younger).  It would seem improbable for an 8 year-old to have practiced long enough to be able to write a symphony at such a young age.  However, Ericsson provides at least some evidence that suggests that Mozart's father may have been the actual composer of at least the pieces that Mozart reportedly wrote as a child.  

I am not going to weigh in on whether Mozart actually composed first symphony at age 8 or not.  I will say argue that Ericsson has written an interesting and compelling book on a fascinating subject.  Dr. Ericsson died in June, 2020.  However, his research crosses a number of disciplines, including medicine and suggests that expertise can be developed with hard work, focus, commitment, and practice (and lots of experience - Malcolm Gladwell popularized the "10,000 hour rule" in his book Outliers based largely on Ericsson's work).  For me, Ericsson strongly supports the argument that leadership skills can be developed.  In other words, leaders are not born, they are made.  

I will end with a quote by Dr. Ericsson himself.  He wrote, "The clear message from decades of research is that no matter what role innate genetic endowment may play in the achievements of ‘gifted’ people, the main gift that these people have is the same one we all have—the adaptability of the human brain and body, which they have taken advantage of more than the rest of us.''  That should be a welcome statement for all of us.