Bounce
In this thoughtful, provocative book, a former Olympian persuasively demonstrates how sports offer powerful and often overlooked tools with which to explore fundamental subjects, including biology, morality, globalization, culture, gender, race, and economics.
Stats for nerds
8recommend
10mentions
8people
2010–2016years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Read the book Bounce by Matthew Syed. It was pretty entertaining and gave me a whole new perspective on raw intelligence vs learned skill.
- Native skill is largely a myth.
According to Matthew Syed in Bounce (a very good read) there are numerous fields in which native or genetic skill is considered the norm (sports, chess, math) but no studies support that hypothesis.
Conversely a number of studies actively disprove that native skill exists. Ultimately, barring true genetic freaks (Michael Phelps wingspan for instance) anyone could achieve any level of any pursuit with enought focussed practice and a degree of luck.
- You have two options: Change your mindset or continue burying/ignoring your ambitions. Burying your ambitions can make you relatively satisfied in life, but I believe they will always haunt you regardless of how hard you try.
You can change your mindset by developing habits that turns your mind into a force for achieving your ambitions, instead of an obstacle that prevents you from achieving your ambitions (which it appears to be now). Through this you will achieve MUCH more, and I believe be much more satisfied in life.
You're only 30. I would suggest you continue reading, looking inward and learning about yourself, and continue searching for answers concerning why you aren't full of passion and motivation for achieving your ambitions. Everyone's journey is different, however here are a smattering of books/resources that may be insightful and have helped me:
1. Carol Dweck on mindset:
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
- Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development (Essays in Social Psychology)
2. About the inner journey of high performance, removing mental obstacles, cross-disciplinary learning, and nature vs. nurture:
- The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence - Josh Waitzkin
- Way of the Peaceful Warrior
- The Talent Code - Coyle
- Bounce - Syed
3. Add some insightful structure to your perspective. Do you have a pessimistic and deterministic mindset that is a detriment to your success?
- http://blakemasters.com/post/23435743973/peter-thiels-cs183-...
4. Learn how self-control and willpower works and overcome it:
- The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It - McGonigal
5. Strengthening your mind:
- The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers
- A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey Through the World of Fighting
6. Find famous people in history you admire and feel you can relate with, and read their biographies. A few suggestions:
- The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
- Titan (about Rockefeller)
- Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
- Steve Jobs - Isaacson
- River of Doubt (about T. Roosevelt's dangerous journey through the Amazon river)
7. Don't worry about things you can't change and place all your focus in the things you can. Stoicism:
- Seneca
- Meditations
8. On how the people who have become masters in their field became masters in their field:
- Mastery by Robert Greene
9. Very intriguing characters that display incredible strength (mixed with some controversial philosophy):
- Atlas Shrugged - Rand
- The Fountainhead - Rand
- A great book that explores this subject in more depth is Matthew Syed's book "Bounce - The myth of talent and the power of practice".
- I read quite a few this year and the best one is really hard to define. But my favorite and the one that had the biggest immediate impact is definitely Bounce by Matthrew Syed http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7845157-bounce
Syed was the top Pingpong player in England, and goes in detail about his trainings and what he thinks are the reasons for his success: lots of circumstantial luck, and thousands of hours of deliberate practice with immediate feedback. Even though it's too late for me to become a national player, the book forced me to refocus my thoughts on the everyday activities that are important to me, and find a way to practice and improve up on them.
- Few books from this year:
The New Solution Selling -- The first sales book I ever read and extremely enlightening. It demystified much of the sales process for me.
The Intelligent Investor -- Timeless ideas on investing.
Steve Jobs -- I had no intention of reading this book but found it incredibly interesting. Very insightful.
The Intelligent Entrepreneur -- This book followed 3 HBS grads from pre-HBS to entrepreneur success, and attempted to draw some overarching conclusions on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Very interesting.
Name of the Wind -- The only fully fiction book I read this year. Great book. Waiting on the 3rd to come out before I read the second in the series.
Dreaming in Code -- I'd heard great things about this book but I felt it was very lacking in insight. Some interesting moments but overall a disappointment. Perhaps it is because I read it after ~6 years of professional programming experience + 4 years of school + a number of other programming books?
Teaching Minds -- Roger Schank's latest book on education. In this one he outlines key cognitive abilities that education should be centered around rather than subjects. Very interesting.
A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics -- I had read very little macroeconomics, and this book provided a very readable and quick guide on the basics.
Bounce (by Matthew Syed) -- Great book about how great performers became great performers. This goes back to the nurture vs nature debate, and sides very heavily on the nurture side. Syed was an olympic ping pong player from the UK.
The Willpower Instinct -- I'm still reading this one (with my wife), and find it to be unbelievably insightful. If you have any desires to change any habits or behaviors, this book is incredible.
The Innovator's Solution -- The book after The Innovators Dilemma. Very insightful, just like the previous one.
