Epstein’s previous book The Sports Gene was an excellent read, so picked this up second hand as I assumed it would be well written and full of fascinating insight. That turned out to be true, really enjoyed this exploration of an important concept for both society and individuals.
The underlying principle is that the origin story of Tiger Woods – started playing golf at an incredibly early age, focussed relentlessly and exclusively on golf, ignored all other distractions – albeit true and successful for him, is not actually the best or most common way for elite performers (in sports, science, music etc) to develop. In fact, having experience of a breadth of experiences is proven to produce better outcomes. The book is full of examples from scientific research, US Army training, business and other domains showing that those with narrow depth often contribute to worse results than people with broad and shallow backgrounds.
So for example, teams of lifelong experts are far worse at predictions in their own domains (both short term and long term) than teams of amateurs who have been picked not for their specialism but for their ways of thinking. Those that are open-minded, self-challenging, and willing to absorb, with a keen interest and background across a wide range of topics will perform significantly better. The paradox is that society is setup to favour the former.
From an individual perspective, the insight is that a) it is very hard to know what we enjoy and are good at until we try it and b) we are all constantly changing, so who we will be in 5 years time in almost impossible to predict. Therefore, long term career or life planning is better replaced with the courage to explore, sample, and then change course based on results. This more meandering journey, while not what people assume a CV should look like, actually enables you to grow your range by taking elements from each experience, to help you focus in on what truly matches your skills, and to give you a better chance of success in subsequent endeavours.
A great book to give yourself a nudge.
