The Role of Editor in Nonfiction Writing

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

James Patterson is well known to create extensively detailed outlines for his fiction before he sets a pen to page so it's interesting to think about that person who's sort of like at the very top in terms of producing on that level. There's this idea of you playing the role of editor versus having an external editor who would be that mentor slash teacher and i don't know when you're talking about no bell price winning authors would they work with editors anybody ? I've never met anybody who produces something independently as a writer who creates something as good as could be created with an outside editor, says author James Patterson.

Ever hear of the 10,000 rule? The idea that it takes 10,000 hours to become world-class at anything?

Well, what if it wasn't true?

And, what if the research it was based on actually said something very different? Something that somehow got "lost in translation" when the data went mainstream.

In today's conversation, we sit down with K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. He studies what it takes to be the best in the world in domains such as music, chess, medicine, and sports. And it was his research that served of the basis for the now wildly popular 10,000 hour rule that's been cited in some of the biggest books of the last 10 years..

Problem is, as you're about to discover, it's a lie. There never was a 10,000 rule. That number, along with the idea of a "rule," is based on a series of misinterpretations of his work.

In this new book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, and in today's conversation, Ericsson finally sets the record straight. He distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities.

EIn This Episode You’ll Learn:

The difference between "traditional" practice, "purposeful" practice and "deliberate" practice.
How Malcolm Gladwell may have misinterpreted Ericsson's research on the 10,000 hour rule.
How Ericsson sees the importance of the role of a teacher in accelerating the path to expertise.
What actually motivates someone to do the often grueling work for the years it takes to become great.
How he's studied people who have learned and developed systems to memorize long strings of numbers.

Mentioned In This Episode: