Bounce
Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success
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4.1 • 97 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In the vein of the international bestselling Freakonomics, award-winning journalist Matthew Syed reveals the hidden clues to success—in sports, business, school, and just about anything else that you’d want to be great at. Fans of Predictably Irrational and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point will find many interesting and helpful insights in Bounce.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Syed, sportswriter and columnist for the London Times, takes a hard look at performance psychology, heavily influenced by his own ego-damaging but fruitful epiphany. At the age of 24, Syed became the #1 British table tennis player, an achievement he initially attributed to his superior speed and agility. But in retrospect, he realizes that a combination of advantages a mentor, good facilities nearby, and lots of time to hone his skills set him up perfectly to become a star performer. He admits his argument owes a debt to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, but he aims to move one step beyond it, drawing on cognitive neuroscience research to explain how the body and mind are transformed by specialized practice. He takes on the myth of the child prodigy, emphasizing that Mozart, the Williams sisters, Tiger Woods, and Susan Polgar, the first female grandmaster, all had live-in coaches in the form of supportive parents who put them through a ton of early practice. Cogent discussions of the neuroscience of competition, including the placebo effect of irrational optimism, self-doubt, and superstitions, all lend credence to a compelling narrative; readers who gobbled up Freakonomics and Predictably Irrational will flock to this one.
Customer Reviews
A good factual read...
I enjoyed this book although the prices on these books at Apple's store are way too steep!!! The book follows my belief that talent is not some magical gift from an almighty, but it comes from a lot of hard work and perseverance.
People like to believe in prodigies and overnight successes, but that is an extremely false and dim-witted belief. It's plain lazy!!! This book is well cited and based on factual scientific studies.
Great read!
The author does a phenomenal job explaining how countless hours of purposeful practice in any field could create a world champion. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it.
Bounce
Environment and good coaches plus timing and opportunity if one has prepared A good book