How a ‘Sampling Period’ Leads to Better Development of Specialized Skills

In an insightful TED Talk animated by Avi Ofer, author David Epstein discusses the optimal environments in which a person can develop specialized skills. Traditional obligatory early specialization says that 10,000 cumulative hours of practice make someone an expert, however this idea is being challenged.

There's a common idea that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become great at something. From an early age, we are encouraged to choose our path, focus specifically, and start racking up those hours. But, what if these head starts aren't helping us the way we think they do?

Rather than a singular focus, it is important for the person to be able to go through a
sampling period" of different and diverse skills before settling on a single specialty.

The pattern looks like this: the future elites tend to have what scientists call a sampling period, where they try a variety of physical activities. They gain broad general skills and delay specializing until later than peers who plateau at lower levels. ...So I started to wonder about other domains that we associate with obligatory early specialization, like music. Turns out the pattern is often similar. The exceptional musicians didn't start spending more time in deliberate practice than the average musicians until their third instrument. They too tended to have a sampling period.

Epstein explains that there are two other varieties: a kind of learning environment where the rules are clear and feedback is instantaneous and a wicked learning environment where things are a bit more nebulous and feedback is rare. He further notes that skill development is not one-size-fits-all, as different people respond to different motivations.

Golf is the epitome of what the psychologist Robin Hogarth called a kind learning environment. Next steps and goals are clear; rules that are clear and never change. When you do something, you get feedback that is quick and accurate. ...On the other end of the spectrum are wicked learning environments where next steps and goals may not be clear- rules may change. You may or may not get feedback when you do something, it may be delayed, it may be inaccurate. Which one of these sounds like the world we're increasingly living in?

The TED Original Talk

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