RSS
Book Review / The Talent Code | Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.
The books is called The Talent Code, the reviewer is called Khatzumoto and the innocent bystander in all this is you!
Let the opinionating begin…
Title/Author/Info |
Pros |
Cons |
|
The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. |
Content
|
Tone
Content
|
Comments |
||
Before I talk about the cool parts of this book, let me talk about the goofy ones, just to be mean.
Wow…so ignition, is like the starter thing that, like, ignites the energy, right? Like, in the same way that a pilot light works with methane to produce thermal energy in a gas cooker, right? The “pilot” in “pilot light” like is like the “pilot” in “pilot episode” of a television show. The pilot episode and a team of writers work together to produce a TV show in exactly the same way that one doesn’t need effing friggin fake swearing paragraph-long explanations of what the word “ignition” means! Argh! If you’re going to go to the trouble of singing me camp songs about ignition, your name had better be R. Kelly! OK, I’ve bullied Coyle enough. Poor guy. Fundamentally, he’s written a worthwhile, informative and even inspiring book, all without ever going mushy. That’s a major achievement. Like Colvin, he’s done all this and made put it in a very readable, cogent package. By way of their respective books, both Colvin and Coyle have given us clear, unambiguous reference points that, AFAIK, didn’t exist before. Which is not to denigrate the research of homeboys like Anders Ericsson, it’s just that Ericsson’s work mostly sits spread out across multiple, separate academic papers; there isn’t as much of that unifying ”here it is, badabing” point (not yet, at least) that Coyle and Colvin’s books have provided so well. Anyway, with that intro out of the way, let’s pick out and dialogue with some major gems from Talent Code:
Replace “myelin” with “Japanese” and you have a one-line philsophy for language immersion right there: “Japanese doesn’t care about who you are. It only cares about what you do”.
I have three letters for you: SRS. Three more words: overlapping cloze deletions. Coyle appears not to be familiar with SRS. But he uses cloze deletions in all but name as a reader exercise to explain the concept of deep practice.
Haha. That’s a really good analogy. It’s interesting that Coyle should use cookies — and thereby cooking — as an example. Two people (or one person at two different times) can have access to essentially the exact same ingredients but make two very different-tasting dishes. One can even have access to drastically less fancy ingredients, but through better process, make a better-tasting dish. This may or not be the idea that Coyle was going for, but it is something that can be picked up from the text. Speaking of the text, this next part, where Coyle uses broadband internet as a metaphor for myelin, sent chills down my spine:
Or, put more succinctly:
Woodshed it to get it. Use it or lose it. But Coyle doesn’t just stop there. Not even fighter pilots are safe from his myelin shotgun of righteousness:
What’s good for the pilot is good for the language-learner. If any language learners are getting better results than you, it’s not because they’re smarter or more “talented”, it’s because they have a better mindset and actions. They don’t have better flour or sugar than you; they’re just using better, simpler, funner cookie recipes. K, so…I guess I’ve spent more time commenting on quotes from the book than actually reviewing it, but…it’s just that cool of a book, what can I say The Talent Code OK, I couldn’t resist. Here’s one last pearl of wisdom from Dan-Dan.
Everyone worked for their language ability once. It only seems like it came effortlessly after the fact. Believe that. |
||
of this age crap. When I was a kid, the answer to anything was always always always “you’re too young, wait until you’re older”. Do not pull this bait and switch crap on me now. I’m here; I’m alive and I’m going to do stuff. End of story.
? It’s packed with all sorts of eye-widening vignettes and insights; I’ve barely even scratched the surface. Crucially (for anyone tempted to overwork themselves) Coyle points out that deep practice is tiring (soporific even)
Read on:
