1) Bounce by Matthew Syed
2) Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
3) Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Bounce extends Gladwell's 10,000 hour principle, but rather than focusing on whether people achieve what they do through talent, hard work, luck or a combination, it looks at the concept of purposeful practice. If you ponder the things you have spent 10,000 hours doing, it is likely you will concede that you are not an expert at all of them. In many cases we are on Auto-Pilot, and so most of the hours smudge into one big blur of plodding on - even if they are funnish and pass the time.
Committed was purposeful in a different way. Gilbert was forced to confront something she was dead set against, and was yet forced to do. She didn't just accept it but really confronted and studied the thing she feared. Yup, she knew the conclusion in the beginning. There was no escape. So her book is not an example of really challenging a deeply held belief with the possibility that you may be wrong - it is more an example of creating a story that you can accept that helps you accept the cards you are dealt. We all do that all the time. If we weren't able to create (often false) stories to make us feel better, we would be doomed to a life of regret. She just upped the rigour of her story creation to a new level, and the resultant book was entertaining.
Finally, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is actually quite close to Bounce, but in this case the 'purposeful practice' is anything but optional. This is the story of a Chinese woman with deeply held beliefs about parenting that are very different from the society she lives in fighting like the title of the book suggests. In some ways I am jealous of the heroins of this story. I would love to play the violin or the piano like they do. I have never had the focus to pursue a single activity with the laser pointed devotion (that was admittedly forced on them). Mine has been more of a scatter gun approach, with a fair dose of lying on the couch watching cricket (come on South Africa! AB and Tahir you boytjies!). Books like this get me going though. It is like watching Good Will Hunting, Beautiful Mind, Dead Poets' Society or Proof.
Exciting times.
3 comments:
I haven't read Battle Hymn (or the others) but from reading an excerpt of I think I get the general idea.
My impression is that its almost the antithesis of those films (not sure about proof). Will Hunting pretty much cant help himself and Dead Poets society is all about making the kids actually want to do the stuff.
Yes, looking at the cover of a book and reading the blurb on the back normally allows you to summarize the whole thesis.
Come on Stu, I was bigging you up about being the one who got me to read books I disagreed with.
I like Bounce's approach better than Battle but your impression of Battle Hymn is not on the money (in my never humble opinion).
i'm confused. your brief sum up exactly matched the impression I got from reading the excerpt from her book in the wall street journal. so i'm sticking with it for now.
where did I go wrong?
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