Book Titles

Constantly trying to extend one’s abilities in a field requires amassing additional knowledge, and staying at it for years develops the critical connections that organize all that knowledge and make it useful.

…top performers’ deep understanding of their field becomes the structure on which they can hang the huge quantities of information they learn about.

Top performers understand their field at a higher level than average performers do, and thus have a superior structure for remembering information about it.

It’s clear that the superior memory of great performers doesn’t just happen. Since it is built on deep understanding of the field, it can be achieved only through years of intensive study.

[Superior performance] requires consistently relating new information to higher-level concepts, which is hard work.

The brain’s ability to change is greatest in youth, but it doesn’t end there.

There is in fact a path leading from the state of our own abilities to that of the greats. The path is extremely long and demanding, and only a few will follow it all the way to its end.

…at most companies – as well as most educational institutions and many nonprofit organizations – the fundamentals of great performance are mainly unrecognized or ignored.

In all practice activities it’s highly valuable to get others’ views about what you should be working on and how you’re doing.

Because the demands of achieving exceptional performance are so great over so many years, no one has a prayer of meeting them without utter commitment.