Ephemeris of the Mind (Book Review) Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success
Time to read: 3 min read
Book Cover
The subversive idea at the centre of Ericsson’s work is that excellence is not reserved for the lucky few but can be achieved by almost all of us.
Review
Matthew Syed is a sports journalist who used to be an Olympian representing Britain in table tennis. In this book, Syed outlines and analyzes his path to success in table tennis, as well as similar pathes to success in other sports and beyond.
Syed's main thesis is that idea of "talent" is largely a myth, and circumstances and hard work are the two crucial ingredients for success. The message is very similar to that of Outliers by Gladwell; Bounce references many of the same ideas, such as research by Anders Ericsson, and even references Gladwell's works.
Syed does build on-top of Gladwell's book in many respects, in particular with specific analogies from sports. Some of my main takeaways are:
Practice allows one to synthesize information faster, by "chunking" together details of a situation and circumventing the combinatorial explosion of details through better pattern recognition. This is especially powerful when combined with the idea of implicit vs explicit memory; more attention bandwith is available when one can perform certain tasks automatically without explicit thought.
The idea of "choking" actually occurs in many cases because an individual is overly concentrated on the details, which "unchunks" the details
Purposeful and deliberate practice is crucial to success in any domain, especially practice with feedback.
Starting from a young age is an important driver of success, especially in sports; parents should let their child try various activities so that the child can select one which they enjoy. Parents should also praise effort and not claim innate talent.
Syed also brings up some interesting theoretical ideas, such as the role of religion on athletic performance (essentially acting as a placebo) and the ethics of doping and artificial genetic enhancements (Syed is not against these ideas). I also found many of his personal anecdotes about playing tabble tennis very relatable, as I used to train table tennis competitively in elementary school, under Geng Lijuan; I have experienced many of Syed's stories, such as the multi-ball training regime.
Conclusion
Although overlapping a great deal with other books, Bounce does bring up some interesting ideas about success, especially in the realm of competitive sports.