Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Do the Caps just need to "chunk" better?

Saw this column by Peter Orszag in today's New York Times.  What he said here about Matthew Syed's book, "Bounce," struck a chord...

"...the stars among us have practiced so much that they are better at what psychologists call “chunking.” Imagine trying to remember 41 letters or numbers. Most of us couldn’t come close to doing that. Now imagine trying to remember a sentence with 47 letters or numbers, like: “Imagine trying to remember 41 letters or numbers.” Most of us can do that with little difficulty, because we are chunking the letters and numbers. We remember the words, and we know the letters in each word.

"Syed shows that most better performers have practiced so intensely that they chunk better at their tasks than normal people. So we see impressive performance and think someone is naturally skilled, whereas the reality is that person has simply practiced for longer and more intensely than others."

Better performers "chunk" better than normal people? OK Caps...chunk as if your lives depended on it!

I wonder if this applies to peanut butter...

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