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The Talent Code By Daniel Coyle Summary

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Daniel Coyle, the author of the book, The Talent Code, claims that, “Greatness isn’t born, it’s grown.” Coyle supports his claim by first explaining why the Brazilian soccer team is so great. He then explains how his theory, “deep practice”, can be proven by doing a word recall exercise. Lastly the author applies his theory to a real life situation, trying to remember a person's name at a party. Coyle’s purpose is to convince people that one doesn’t need to be born with a talent to become talented. Instead, one can achieve their desired talent by following his method of deep practice. The author writes in a formal and passionate tone, his writing is directed toward teens. This writing is significant because it shows a new way for someone to …show more content…

This is because, “Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways-operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes-makes you smarter” ( Coyle 18 ). Simply, it says that making mistakes is good, that making them forces one’s mind to think harder ( deep practice ) which will result in one’s developing a superior talent. Coyle explains how this method of deep practice works by a word recall exercise. In the exercise there are two columns, column A has a pair of words while column B has fragmented pieces of words. When one tries to memorizes words from both coulombs, one will memorize more words from columns B because as Coyle explained, “ You stumbled ever so briefly, then figured it out. You experienced a microsecond of struggle, and that microsecond made all the difference. You didn't practice harder when you looked at column B. You practiced deeper” ( Coyle 17 ). This proves Coyle’s theory because when one struggles it makes them practice deeper. Coyle shows a real life example of trying to remember a person's name at a party. Again, Coyle emphasis that practicing deeper is the key to becoming great in a …show more content…

Coyle states that the Brazilian soccer team is so exceptional because they practice using the deep practice method. He disregards the obvious reasons for why the Brazilian team is so great, like: genetics, environment, and the country's passion for soccer. Genetics may not play as much in making someone great at a talent. If someone isn’t the right height or size they may not be able to become great in their desired talent. For example, there are no short players in the NBA. Michael Phelps is a great swimmer because he uses deep practice, however he also has the perfect genetics. He has extremely large feet for powerful kicking and a large wing span for powerful strokes. Michael Phelps wouldn’t be such a great swimmer if not for his

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