Conversation Starters

Monday

"A Star Is Made"

A May 7 New York Times article by the authors of Freakonomics considers what's behind the great performances of great performers, whether in sports, arts, or any other field. They pivot off the observation that a significant proportion of top soccer stars have birthdays early in the year. Why?

Anders Ericsson, a psych professor at FSU, is studying human performance and has concluded that our ability to develop skills is much more nurture than nature. What is important is "deliberate practice": setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating on technique as much as outcome. This kind of practice characterizes the work of, say, surgeons, whose performance generally improves with time. Mammographers, by contrast, see the success of their analyses long after they make a breast cancer assessment (feedback is far from immediate) and their work worsens over time. Training in medicine and all other fields should incorporate the aspects of "deliberate practice". With it, people young and old have potential they typically write off to lack of talent or potential.

And the soccer players? If youth soccer leagues have an age requirement, young soccer players who are months older than their teammates (born in the earliest months of that year) are more likely to get the attention from coaches and deliberate practice that develop them ahead of their peers. Given years of this trend and a sample size of hundreds of players, the trend appears.

Labels: education, freakonomics, talent