Thursday, May 30, 2013

Does Practice Make Perfect?

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A friend of mine send this link about practice making perfect and I have a few comments in reply.


“deliberate practice” – a type of practice aiming at correcting mistakes and rich on feedback – is the only factor that explains differences in performance in sports, arts, sciences and intellectual games"
 
What if your concept of 'perfection' really isn't perfect? Practice all you want and you're just becoming more imperfect.
 
"practice required to become a national master"
 
This can vary simply by the stupid changes in the rating system the USCF inflicts on us. An expert friend and I and many others noticed a huge drop in ratings in the 90s-2000s, sending many masters and experts to their rating floor. Why? Nobody knows, but it may have something to do with low-rated kids coming into the system. The result? Thousands of adults simply left competitive chess!
 
"children have higher neural plasticity"
 
This idea must be important if the child's first lessons are taking them to perfection, but if they're being taught the wrong things they will only adapt to that quickly and still be far from perfect. It's fine to learn chess  as a 1st language, but if you speak gibberish everyone will notice. On the other hand, the child may indeed learn quicker because there's no mental scar tissue to work around.
 
 
 
 

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