The Talent Code

Coyle spent years visiting places that produce unusual numbers of skilled people, small tennis clubs, music schools and football pitches that outperform everything around them, and his question is what those places have in common. His answer has two parts. The first is a biological claim about myelin, the sheath that forms around neural circuits with use, which he argues is the physical form skill takes: practice thickens it, and thicker insulation makes the circuit faster and more reliable. The second is about the kind of practice that builds it, which he describes as operating at the edge of ability, making errors, noticing them and correcting immediately, rather than repeating what is already comfortable. Around that he places coaching and the ignition that makes someone want to work that hard in the first place. The book then turns the findings into a programme for readers. The myelin explanation is the part to hold loosely, since it is a simplification of a contested area, while the description of effortful, error-focused practice matches the wider literature.

Written from the publisher description, Open Library.

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