Deliberate practice: your path to extraordinary performanceIn Peak, psychologist Anders Ericsson, whose research inspired the famous “10,000-hour rule,” reveals what truly drives mastery - and it’s not talent. Drawing on three decades of much-admired, myth-shattering research, Ericsson shows that focused, purposeful practice can unlock exceptional skill in anyone.Drawing on countless case-studies of musicians and a...

**Mozart wasn’t born with perfect pitch.Most athletes are not born with any natural advantage.Three world-class chess players were sisters, whose success was planned by their parents before they were even born.**Anders Ericsson has spent thirty years studying The Special Ones, the geniuses, sports stars and musical prodigies. And his remarkable finding, revealed in Peak, is that their special abilities are acquired through training. The innate ‘gift’ of tal...

In this updated and expanded edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, some of the world's foremost experts on expertise share their scientific knowledge of expertise and expert performance and show how experts may differ from non-experts in terms of development, training, reasoning, knowledge, and social support. The book reviews innovative methods for measuring experts' knowledge and performance in relevant tasks. Sixteen major domains of expertise are covere...

This 2006 book was the first handbook where the world's foremost 'experts on expertise' reviewed our scientific knowledge on expertise and expert performance and how experts may differ from non-experts in terms of their development, training, reasoning, knowledge, social support, and innate talent. Methods are described for the study of experts' knowledge and their performance of representative tasks from their domain of expertise. The development of expertise is also studied by retrospect...

Excellence and the highest levels of performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games have always been an object of fascination to both scientists and lay people. Only during the last 20 years have scientists studied these levels of performance in the laboratory in order to identify their mediating mechanisms. Contrary to the common belief that innate talents are the critical factors for exceptional performance, investigators have found that acquired skills, knowledge, and physiolog...

**Brought to you by Penguin.*A Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman and GQ Book for 2025 ***The tortured poet. The rebellious scientist. The monstrous artist. The tech disruptor.You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate.Taking us from the Renaissance Florence of Leonardo da Vinci to th...

In the international bestseller The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg explained why we do what we do. In Smarter Faster Better, he applies the same relentless curiosity, rigorous reporting and rich storytelling to explain how we can get better at the things we do. The result is a groundbreaking exploration of the science of productivity.A group of data scientists at Google embark on a four-year study of how the best teams function, a...

**'This is the book we need right now' CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ‘Lucid, funny and fascinating’ ADAM BUXTONThe tech disruptor. The tortured poet. The rebellious scientist. The monstrous artist.**You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate.Taking us from the Renaissance Florence of Leonardo da Vinci to the Floridian rocket launches of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Hel...

**'You will love Harry Sidebottom’s magnificent, blood-drenched study of the life of a gladiator … Was I not entertained? I absolutely was.' Dominic Sandbrook, The Times'Grippingly original' Tom Holland***A TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR***In ancient Rome, a single day could decide a gladiator’s fate. Follow in their footsteps with bestselling author Harry Sidebottom.**Take a seat at the feast on the eve of the games and watc...

Wreckers sinks the old narratives of imperialism, revealing the violent, chaotic and improvised reality of empire-building from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.'Clever and compelling book. The storytelling and the scholarship fairly spark off each other. It could be a model for how academics should write history for a general audience' The Times‘A flowing, gripping narrative, Wreckers is distinguished by en...

In his international bestseller The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize-winner Charles Duhigg explained why we do what we do. Now he applies the same relentless curiosity and masterful analysis to the question: how can each of us achieve more?Drawing on the very latest findings in neuroscience, psychology and behavioural economics, he demonstrates the eight simple principles that govern productivity. He demonstrates how the most dynamic and effective people – f...

Today, trauma is everywhere, and it seems like everybody has it. Trauma shapes public debates on education, criminal justice and healthcare. It’s cited as a root cause of addiction, mental health issues, and relationship breakdowns. It permeates media, from music and television to films and books – my own included.While the increasing openness is welcome, I’ve observed that this rise has been accompanied by a parallel explosion of disinformation. We now have a poorly regulated mark...