Better Is The Only Way Forward

As well-intentioned professionals, we all want to get better at our work. The problem is that it isn't always clear what aspect of our work holds the highest long-term value. The obvious thing to do is learn is a language syntax or a technology. Things become much less clear when we face situations without an obvious right or wrong answer. This is the domain of expertise. The process for acquiring expertise is well studied and documented. We constantly use a mixture of technical, communication and business skills. It is up to us to decide if we should develop expertise in a business domain or expand our technical skills in case we find ourselves on the job market? In this presentation, we will review what is known about expertise and its acquisition. We will examine how best to apply this information to our own careers in the face of constant change.

Transcript

1. Better Is The Only Way Forward Alan Stevens
2. Contact Me Email/IM: alanstevens@gmail.com Blog: http://halanstevens.com Twitter: @alanstevens
3. Part I What is known about expertise?
4. Qualities of Expertise • Performance consistently superior to peers • Produces concrete results • Can be replicated
5. Everybody works, but not everybody improves. WHY? WHY?
6. The Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition Source: Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
7. "The vast majority of all users remain advanced beginners … never acquiring a more broad-based, conceptual understanding of the task environment" Hackos & Stevens, 1997, p. 36
8. Where are the masters?
9. I’ve met a few.
10. Douglas Crockford
11. Charles Petzold
12. Ward Cunningham
13. Who else?
14. "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" Charles Darwin
16. The Dunning-Kruger Effect Illusory superiority vs. Illusory inferiority
17. "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others" David Dunning and Justin Kruger
18. According to Dunning And Kruger, incompetent people will: • Tend to overestimate their own level of skill • Fail to recognize genuine skill in others • Fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy • Recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they can be trained to substantially improve.
19. Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. David Dunning and Justin Kruger
20. The Knowledge Effect A tendency of individuals to assume that their own knowledge is shared by others. “Understanding and Reducing the Knowledge Effect: Implications for Writers” -- John R. Hayes and Diana Bajzek
21. Part II What does it take to become an expert?
22. Recipe For Greatness 1. Intensive practice 2.Devoted teachers 3.Enthusiastic support
23. 10,000 hours to mastery 4-5-10 4 hours/day 5 days/week For 10 years!
24. Deliberate Practice is the hardest kind of work: 1. Isolate what you don’t know 2. Identify your weaknesses 3. Work just on that
25. Deliberate practice must include immediate and constant feedback.
26. Experts study themselves failing. Joshua Foer
27. Joshua Foer You’ve got to push yourself past where you’re comfortable. You have to watch yourself fail and learn from your mistakes. That’s the way to get better at anything.
28. Karl Rohnke’s CSP Model Comfort Zone Stretch Zone Panic Zone
29. “If you practice with your fingers, no amount is enough. If you practice with your head, two hours is plenty.” Violin Professor Leopold Auer
30. What if I’m talented?
33. Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D in Mindset The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. Believing that your qualities are carved in stone, the fixed mindset, creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.
34. Part III If talent doesn’t insure success, what does?
35. http://www.sxc.hu/photo/743509
36. The more decisions you make the more loss you experience. When you choose one possibility you lose another possibility by natural consequence. James Shelley
37. The ability to delay gratification was a far better predictor of academic performance than I.Q. Angela Lee Duckworth http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer
38. The Plateau http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1364227
39. The Mastery Curve
40. The Dabbler
41. The Obsessive
42. The “Hacker”
43. “If you can deal with hot emotions, then you can study for the S.A.T. instead of watching television, and you can save more money for retirement. It’s not just about marshmallows.” Walter Mischel, Stanford professor of psychology in charge of the marshmallow experiment
44. Grit A passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take. Angela Lee Duckworth
45. Part IV What are we to do with this information?
46. http://www.flickr.com/photos/locator/538441133/
47. http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1363645
48. http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1234025
49. “These are powerful instincts...The only way to defeat them is to avoid them, and that means paying attention to something else. We call that will power, but it’s got nothing to do with the will.” John Jonides, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Michigan
50. Thomas M. Sterner in The Practicing Mind When we are totally focused in the present moment, and in the process of what we are doing, we are completely absorbed in the activity. As soon as we become aware of how well we are concentrating on something, we are no longer concentrating on it.
51. Flow requires challenge or boredom results.
52. Challenge vs. Skill Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Challenge_vs_skill.jpg
53. Conditions Necessary to Achieve the Flow State • One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. • One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. • The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback.
54. Chip and Dan Heath in Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard Self-control Is An Exhaustible Resource It's like doing bench presses at the gym. The first one is easy when your muscles are fresh, but with each additional repetition, your muscles get more exhausted.
55. • Will and discipline are far more limited and precious resources than most of us realize • They must be called upon very selectively • Even small acts of self-control use up this limited reservoir • We have the capacity for very few conscious acts of self-control in a day. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
56. Positive Energy Rituals
58. Conclusion
59. Greatness is not a function of circumstances. Greatness, as it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice. Jim Collins in Good to Great
60. Resources
66. Links to Additional Resources Expertise and Skilled Performance The Making of an Expert What It Takes to be Great Unskilled And Unaware of It (pdf) Developing Expertise: Herding Racehorses, Racing Sheep (video) Don't!: The Secret of Self Control What If the Secret to Success is Failure? Personal Best The Making of a Corporate Athlete (pdf) Tony Schwartz: The Myths of the Overworked Creative (video) Better
67. It is perhaps attitude, not aptitude, that gives us altitude in life. Anders Sorman-Nilsson
68. Thanks For Listening! Email/IM: alanstevens@gmail.com Blog: http://halanstevens.com Twitter: @alanstevens