A Small Book That Could Turn You Into a Staggering Genius—The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle
By: Sarah Cy
Tags: Life Lessons, Inspiration, Talent, Books, Writing

Introduction

The author started researching “hotbeds,” centers that disproportionately produced high achievers in multiple fields, around the world.

Based on his experiences and the work of scientists like K Anders Ericsson, Douglas Fields, and Robert Bjork, he wrote this book to help people realize that talent is not innate, but developed.

(See book The Talent Code)

This book contains advice that is field-tested and concise. If you want to make the most of your time and energy and get great at what you do, read this.

Small actions, repeated over time, transform us.

Developing talent is all about growing the brain. “Muscle memory” doesn’t really exist, because our muscles simply do what our brains tell them to do.

Part One: Getting Started: Stare, Steal, and Be Willing to be Stupid

Talent begins with brief, powerful encounters that spark motivation by linking your identity to a high-performing person or group. This is called ignition, and it consists of a tiny, world-shifting thought lighting up your unconscious mind: I could be them.

Tip # 1 Stare at Who You Want to Become

It’s not just about observing, it’s about staring with the “raw, unblinking, intensely absorbed gaze” you see in “hungry cats or newborn babies.”

Fill your view with vivid images of future you (pics, vids) and stare at them every day, because even a brief connection (sharing a birthday with an admirable person) can increase unconscious motivation.

Ex: Se Ri Pak was the first female S Korean golfer who won a major tournament in 1988 and after that, a flood of S Korean girls became golfers.

Tip # 2 Spend Fifteen Minutes a Day Engraving the Skill on Your Brain

Engraving: watch the skill closely and intensely over and over until you have a high-def mental blueprint.

Intense: watch/listen so closely you can imagine the FEELING of performing the skill.

For mental skills, try to recreate the expert’s decisions: chess players replay games, speakers re-give great speeches, writers rewrite passages.

Tip # 3 Steal Without Apology

Best source of info is top performers. Steal from them.

Look at every single performer better than you and see what they’ve got that you can use. Then make it your own. — Linda Septien

Focus on stealing specifics, not general impressions. Capture concrete facts. Ask:

What, exactly, are the critical moves? How do they do these moves differently than you?

Tip # 4 Buy a Notebook

Many top performers keep a daily performance journal. Reflect on what you wrote. Journal = map of clarity.

Results from today

Ideas for tomorrow

Goals for later

Tip # 5 Be Willing to Be Stupid

At Meadowmount School of Music, informal rule: If a passerby can recognize a song, you’re playing it too fast.

Super-exaggerated slowness reveals small hard-to-detect mistakes = higher quality reaches.

Take risks. Mistakes aren’t verdicts, but info to navigate to the correct move.

Tip # 6 Choose Spartan Over Luxurious

Luxury is a motivational narcotic, signals you to work less hard.

Tip # 7 Before You Start, Figure Out If It’s a Hard Skill or a Soft Skill

Hard skill: repeatable precision. ABCs: Always Be Consistent. (Teachers tend to be involved in early stages)

Soft skill: many paths to a good result, not just one. Be agile and interactive, recognize patterns. 3 Rs: Reading, Recognizing, Reacting.

These use different circuits in your brain.

Tip # 8 To Build Hard Skills, Work Like a Careful Carpenter

Be careful, slow, attuned to errors. Each fundamental skill, no matter how humble, is hugely important.

Teach via vivid images, work on over and over until you hit mastery. Precision matters early on. First reps pave the path for the future. Brains are good at building not building connections.

Tip # 9 To Build Soft Skills, Play Like a Skateboarder

Soft skills: come from exploring inside challenging, ever-changing environments.

The most creative skills require long periods of clumsiness. The Bronte sisters wrote thousands of pages of handmade books.

Focus on making a high number of varied reps and get clear feedback. Don’t worry about errors. Coach yourself: what worked? What didn’t? Why?

Tip # 10 Honor the Hard Skills

Prioritize hard skills: They’re more important to talent in the long run.

Keep practicing fundamental beginner skills. Yo Yo Ma still starts practice with playing single notes.

Resist the temptation of complexity and work on the task of honing and maintaining hard skills, because those form — quite literally — the foundation of everything else.

Tip # 11 Don’t Fall for the Prodigy Myth

Early success: Weak predictor of long term success. Many top performers were overlooked when young.

If you succeed early, ignore it and keep pushing your abilities. If you don’t, don’t quit. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Tip # 12 Five Ways to Pick a High-Quality Teacher or Coach