INTELLIGENCEthousand. Serious amateurs, by contrast, clocked in at just two thou-
sand hours. More recently, in 2008, Joanne Ruthsatz at Oberlin College
assessed the IQ, musical ability and practice habits of 178 high-school
band members and 83 elite conservatory students. Among the high-
school band members, musical achievement was associated with a
mixture of past practice, IQ and musical aptitude (in terms of tone and
rhythm perception skills). All three of these factors were higher among
the conservatory students, as you’d expert, but crucially, differences in
musical achievement among these elite musicians was associated only
with past practice-habits. Among elite performers, in other words it is
more practice that makes all the difference to success.
It’s important to note that not just any practice will do. Rather, Eric-
sson refers to “deliberate practice” being key. According to David Shenk,
author of The Genius in All of Us, this “requires the mindset of never being
satisfied with your current ability ... a constant self-critique, a patho-
logical restlessness, a passion to aim just beyond your capability so that
you actually long for daily disappointment and failure. Most importantly,
it demands a never-ending resolve to dust yourself off and try again.”
Answers to the questions on p.198: 1) Spider; 2) Blue.
The “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson was just five years old when he became lead
singer of the Jackson Five. A renowned vocalist, dancer, song-writer and producer,
he became the best-selling male pop artist of all time. At the time of his death
in 2009, Jackson was preparing for an unprecedented run of fifty London shows,
tickets for which sold faster than for any concert in history.