One of the choices for summer reading in our community is The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. by Daniel Coyle (@DanielCoyle).

Because on an average morning McPherson’s camera captured this average kid doing something distinctly un-average. In five minutes and fifty-four seconds, she accelerated her learning speed by ten times, according to McPherson’s calculations. What was more, she didn’t even notice. (Coyle, 3 pag.)

How might we create hotbeds of talent? What if we experiment to find the right motivation fuel to ignite deep practice? How might we exercise with and as master coaches, a. k. a. talent whisperers?

“Look at that!” McPherson says. “She’s got a blueprint in her mind she’s constantly comparing herself to. She’s working in phrases, complete thoughts. She’s not ignoring errors, she’s hearing them, fixing them. She’s fitting small parts into the whole, drawing the lens in and out all the time, scaffolding herself to a higher level.”

This is not ordinary practice. This is something else: a highly targeted, error-focused process. Something is growing, being built. (Coyle, 4 pag.)

What do we know about building skill? How do we pay attention to errors and learn from them? How might we find “the zone” more often?

The talent code is built on revolutionary scientific discoveries involving a neural insulator called myelin, which some neurologists now consider to be the holy grail of acquiring skill. (Coyle, 5 pag.)

Summer Reading using VTR: Sentence-Phrase-Word:
The Talent Code
Introduction: The girl who did a month's worth of practice in six minutes.

Myelin is important for several reasons. It’s universal: everyone can grow it, most swiftly during childhood but also throughout life. It’s indiscriminate: its growth enables all manner of skills, mental and physical. It’s imperceptible: we can’t see it or feel it, and we can sense its increase only by its magical-seeming effects. (Coyle, 6 pag.)

Coyle, Daniel (2009-04-16). The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.