Author: David Epstein has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He has master's degrees in environmental science and journalism is also the author of the bestseller book, “The Sports Gene”.Book: In this book, David Epstein challenges the pre-existing conception that early specialization, repetition, and deliberate practice are the key to perform at the highest level in sports, music, art, or science. By examining world’s top athletes, artis, musicians, scientists, etc. he shows how early specialization should be the exception, not the rule. He argues that in complex and unpredictable fields (what he calls “wicked domains”) generalists, and not specialists are primed to excel. They are more creative, agile, and positioned to make connections and analogies that early specialists cannot see. However, this does not apply to chess, golf, or programming as the nature of the games require a lot of pattern recognition instead of different sets of skills.Opinion: I have found the book fascinating as it covers a topic that has interested me for a long time. I have been aware of the phenomenon in sports, but it was not clear to me that it was applicable to other fields like science, art, or music. He brings a counterintuitive idea to the table but now we should look for statistical data to check that those compelling anecdotes are not cherry-picked. I also think that it could have been interesting to see more in depth the example of Vasyl Lomachenko (p.11) as he might be the best example of range in sports. His unorthodox training methods have been key for being the #1 pound per pound boxer in the world (yes, above Canelo, Crawford, Tyson Fury and all those guys).
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