I decided my review was not finished, something was bothering me. I think I found it between Talent and Skill.

 Heidi Feather

Professor Denise Comer

English Composition I: Achieving Expertise

April 11, 2013

Review: Coyle, Daniel (2009). The Talent Code New York:Bantam Books ( Chapter 1 The Sweet Spot.)

The story is about the authors quest to find Everest size talent. His quest takes him on a journey for fourteen months. He travels from Brazil to New York's Adirondacks, to California and into the Caribbean. He embarks on this quest to find answers. He wants to know why the Brazilian Soccer team is the best in the world. He searches to find out why flight simulators are so accurate to train pilots. Daniel Coyle comes to the conclusion that when people are trained through “deep practice” they learn to excel.

The chapter starts of with a comment by Coyle's daughter; “Daddy's going on a treasure hunt.” (12) Coyle's main argument is that talent is not born it is earned by deep practice. He asked readers to recall words from two different list. One list is just a pair of words and the other is a pair of words with letters missing. He writes “that most people remember more of the words that contained fragments.” “Studies show that most people remember three times as many.” “This is the essence of deep practice.”(16) He continues that “ Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways—operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes—makes you smarter.”(18) He introduces Robert Bjork the chair of psychology at UCLA, who has spent most of his life delving into questions of memory and learning. Coyle quote's Bjork who said “Things that appear to be obstacles turn out to be desirable in the long haul.” “One real encounter, even for a few seconds, is far more useful than several hundred observations.” (18) He continues with Bjork who according to Coyle, concluded that there is a “Sweet Spot in learning.” “When you find that sweet spot, learning takes off” said Bjork “When you practice deeply,” the usual rules are suspended.” “You use time more efficiently.” “Your small efforts produce big lasting results.”(19)

Coyle gives the most compelling evidence to this theory starting on page twenty. Here he begins to tell the reader about Edwin Link's unusual device, as Coyle calls it. It takes several pages for Coyle to explain how Link learns to fly a plane.(20) He quotes Link about his flying lesson. “For the better part of that hour we did loops and spins and buzzed everything in sight.” “Thank heaven I didn't get sick, but when we got down, I hadn't touched the controls at all.” “It thought what a hell of a way to teach someone to fly”.(21) Coyle goes on and explains how Link built the Aviation Trainer. Coyle explains that it took a series of accidents in the Airmail system, before Link's invention became popular. Coyle explains how “ Links trainer permitted pilots to practice more deeply, to stop, struggle, make errors, and learn from them.” “During a few hours in a Link trainer, a pilot could “take off” and “land” a dozen times on instruments.” “He could dive, stall, and recover, spending hours inhabiting the sweet spot at the edge of his capabilities in ways he could never risk in an actual plane”. (24)

Coyle latter explains how the game of fustal played all over Brazil, teaches future soccer stars, by putting them into deep practice. The game fustal is played with a small and heavy ball, the play is more intense and the players move more quicker and handle the ball more than in soccer.

This reader feels that, what Coyle is referring to is a skill not talent. The online Merriam Webster dictionary describes talent as : a characteristic feature, aptitude, or disposition of a person or animal.(a) This dictionary also describes a skill as :a learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability.(b) There is no question in this readers mind, that Coyle is describing a skill in his description of Link's trainer. This reader is a daughter of an avid aviator, who has heard it mentioned that many pilots are considered skilled. In this readers encounters only a few pilots have had the distinction of being called talented by fellow pilots. This may be the reason that Coyle failed to mention savants and children with unexplained extraordinary talents. There are many us that can become more skilled in an area of our choosing. There are those few that have that have the unknowable factor that is known simply as talent.

A treasure hunt could be the way to describe Coyle's writing. It took several pages for this reader to even figure out what Coyle was writing about. At first this reader thought the book was about the Brazilian soccer team. This made the reading slow and confusing. His arguments seem compelling enough, but it left this reader wondering how Coyle came to the conclusion that all talent is earned through deep practice. This reader found the Chapter hard to navigate, it came off as rather boring. There were a few nuggets of interesting stories, but overall no treasure. In closing, this reader wouldn't recommend Coyle's book.

References:

Coyle, Daniel (2009). The Talent Code New York:Bantam Books

(a) Merriam Webster online dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/talent

(b) Merriam Webster online dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skill