Time to give an update on what books we’re cycling through. We made some really good discoveries and find the reading quite enlightening. Check it out.
What’s stimulating our imagination…
One thing leads to another, that’s for sure. In this case, as we were reading the fine book “Episodes with Wayne Thiebaud,” we became quite curious by a book reference he made to a book called “The Genius in All Of Us” by David Shenk.
One thing leads to another.
“…It’s absolutely fascinating. He [David Shenk] has essentially come up with the research of all the people who have investigated this nature/nurture conflict–how strong our genetic structure is compared with our environment. Obviously he won’t discount the importance of genetic predetermination, but it isn’t a conclusion, it’s a process…”
A process! There you go. Someone is speaking our language.
So far, the book is fascinating.
This week we were especially intrigued when we read this:
“…Interestingly, a number of separate studies have turned up the same common number, concluding that truly outstanding skill in any domain is rarely achieved in less than ten thousand hours of practice over ten years’ time (which comes to an average of three hours per day).”
Wow! Someone actually worked out the numbers and you know, three hours seems about right.
And speaking of practice, last Sunday there was an interesting article about NBA player, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors which talked about the time he spends working on ball handling:
In the quiet of summer, at a gym in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C., Stephen Curry works on his ballhandling. He dribbles two basketballs at once, he dribbles while tossing a tennis ball to a nearby trainer and he dribbles side-to-side with a resistance band wrapped around his waist.
Most intriguingly, Curry also dribbles while five lights alternately flash on a wall in front of him. His quest in this innovative drill is to quickly react to the lights, making a specific move — yellow might mean “crossover” — and reaching out with his other hand to tap the light and hurry to the next one.
“The lights mimic what’s happening on the court,” Curry said. “If there’s a defender in front of me, then I’ve got to know where he is and still be ready to initiate whatever move I’m going to make.”
Yeah, the work he puts in definitely shows on the court in games.
We’re loving the “Genius” book. We are also close to wrapping up “Episodes.” Those conversations are so dense with ponderables that we’re sure we’ll be circling back to the beginning to re-read them.
For now, we’re going to keep the number “3” in mind as we try to balance out our day / workload.
What’s on your reading stack? Please let us know via Facebook, Twitter, or email us.
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