20+ Years of Development

Re getting the right kind of problems over 20+ years of development: part of this time is required for maturation, part for the decade of “extended daily amounts of deliberate practice activities” needed to acquire the “complex skills and physiological adaptations” essential to “elite performance”, and part simply gain access to necessary opportunities, resources, and supports required for such development.

Arrival contains three major case studies – of Hitchcock, Woody Guthrie, and Norma Jeane/Marilyn – showing in each the development of the 5 key characteristics the person needed to eventually produce s greatest creations, ie Hitchcock’s films, Guthrie’s songs, and Marilyn’s persona. While totally nonfiction the case studies are written in story form so that the reader ‘experiences’ the actual process of development over the 20+ years.

All of the concepts presented in Arrival to account for ‘how the great become great’ are illustrated repeatedly in each of these case studies, as is the continual interplay of all 4 worlds – ie personal, interpersonal, institutional, and societal – in creating the opportunities for Hitch, Woody, and Norma Jeane/Marilyn to gain access to the right kind of problems over and over and over… throughout the course of their development.

For excerpts from each of these case studies go to:

Hitch excerpt

Woody excerpt

NormaJeane/Marilyn excerpt

Quotes above from Ericsson & Lehmann,1966, and Ericsson & Charness, 1994. (see Sources)