The "tip" of Talent

*The following is a critical review of  Daniel Coyle's, The Talent Code: The Sweet Spot

Daniel Coyle (2009), The Talent Code: The Sweet Spot (chapter one of part I: Deep Practice)

     Are prodigies brought down by storks or are they forged in the fires of determination as the assiduous hammer of practice strikes the Persistent. Widely believed to be a ‘sent-down-by-God’ kind of an affair, talent is supposedly innate. But if this be true, how is it that we find individual talent coming out in numbers from similar socio-geographical backgrounds? Are the Gods too fond of their patron?

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” -Stephen King

    In his cultural myth-breaker, ‘The Talent Code’, author Daniel Coyle goes a step ahead and clearly claims that -Talent isn't born, it's grown. In the focused excerpt, we find the author emphasizing on the presence of a “sweet spot” which requires “deep” practice to bring about expertise.

       The author starts by narrating his journey across the varied geography in search of talent “hotbeds” which he describes to be similar to the voyage of Charles Darwin (The English Naturalist who went around the world and later gave his theory of evolution). He too was in pursuit of finding similar evolutionary amongst the so called ‘hotbeds’ or “Chicken-wire Harvards”. He then goes on to state the similarity in his observation that "talent" is "the possession of repeatable skills (Coyle, 11)”, and there is a particular thought process and routine which much be undertaken to sharpen one's skill. He draws our attention to the “split second” variations in the cogitation of these prodigies, stating that this change is due to deeper practice- where one struggles on the edge of one’s ability thus ends in learning from one’s mistakes. He goes on to cite Robert Bjork (chairperson UCLA), stating that "One real encounter, even for a few seconds, is far more useful than several hundred observations (Coyle, 18)" and the fact that the human brain has infinite potential and the more the number of obstacles we face, the more we learn.


     Further he goes on stressing on the importance of deep practice by giving the example of Roosevelt's “ Airmail Fiasco” which was solved by Edwin Albert Link, Jr.’s unlikely Blue Box device which trained the pilots Link's trainer permitted pilots to practice more deeply, to stop, struggle, make errors, and learn from them. During a few hours in a Link trainer, a pilot could “spend hours inhabiting the sweet spot at the edge of his capabilities in ways he could never risk in an actual plane. (Coyle, 24)” The Air Corps pilots who trained Links were no braver or smarter than the ones who crashed. They simply had the opportunity to practice more deeply.
 Coming onto “ Brazil secret weapon”, the authors unveils Brazil’s secret in form of futsal - football’s poor cousin- which produced some of the greatest footballers of all time.

       The author’s emphasis on the presence of a “sweet spot” is brought out wonderfully through the tapestry of examples given, though the actual definition is not very clear. We are told that “There an optimal gap between what you know and what you're trying to do. When you find that sweet spot, learning takes off.(Coyle, 19)". But as to how to find this mystical edge (so that we can take this leap of faith?) is still hazy. He just goes to stress upon the need to deep practice ad nauseum (which is rather ironic given the subject matter focuses on concentrated practice and not mere repetition).

     The concept of deep practice seems to be derived from Kolb’s theory of experiential learning(Theories of Group Process,1975).  Kolb's research found that people learn in four ways with the likelihood of developing one mode of learning more than another. As shown in the 'experiential learning cycle' model above, learning is:

• Through concrete experience
• Through observation and reflection
• Through abstract conceptualization
• Through active experimentation.

This is exactly what Coyle describes as deep practice.

           The only commendable aspect of the given article was the variety of examples and instances which presents the idea in a simplistic way thus allowing the most casual reader to imbibe his ideas with ease. A good takeaway from this book is the fact that “Having fun” isn't the primary goal of people who want to get good, though they find what they do pleasurable on some level (or at least necessary) and push through all the difficulties and challenges. The cognizance of the author does not seem to be path-breaking.  It avoids becoming just another syrupy self-help book by stressing the importance of hard work and dedication, but it doesn't bring too many new insights to the table.

References:

"The Sweet Spot" by Daniel Coyle

Wikipedia: "Insight learning", "Airmal Fiasco".

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/archive/theories.html

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Sight, a brilliant and disturbing short sci-fi film by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo, imagines a world in which Google Glass-inspired apps are everywhere.

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Flying Still

"Flying without feathers is not easy; my wings have no feathers." 

                                                                                          ~Titus Maccius Plautus

Continuing with my crazy obsession with flight,  here's SmartBird - a flight model of an artificial bird that’s capable of taking off and rising in the air by means of its flapping wings alone.  The wings not only beat up and down but twist like those of a real bird — and seeing it fly leaves no doubt: it’s a perfect technical imitation of the natural model, just bigger. (Even birds think so.) Its wingspan is almost two meters, while its carbon-fiber structure weighs only 450 grams.

But this is just a robot, what if human could flap their own wings and fly like a free bird, into oblivion? 

Here is a model devised by Douglas C. George:

Its been man's obsession to fly since he first set his eyes on the mighty creatures who awry of the world, spread their wings and soar,

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. "
                                                                                                              ~Leonardo Da Vinci 


Source:  www.ted.com

http://www.dcgeorge.com/ProjectFalcon.html

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On Wings Anew

"Though Minos blocks escape by sea and land.

The unconfined skies remain

  though Minos may be lord of all  the world

his sceptre is not regnant of the air, and by that untried way is our escape."

                                                                                                                     Ovid's Metamorphoses

Such were the words of Daedalus, the father of Icarus, spoken as the two of them sat, trapped in a tower by the evil king Minos of Crete. Daedalus saved them by creating a set of wings for both himself and his son using the feathers of birds. According to the Greek mythology, he was actually quite successful, except for the tragic mistake of binding the feathers together with wax, which melted when his son flew too close to the sun.  Symbolic. Refering to Indian mythology and the epic saga of Ramayana, we see the villain, Ravana, abducting the Sita in a chariot with wings. Dramatic.

From biblical angles to the mutant in X-Men, man has always wanted wings. Earliest experiments to mimic birds failed rather comically and Leonardo Da Vinci’s designs remained on paper. But there was a breakthrough and two brothers finally got it (W)right. Thenceforth came the era of the giant birds of steel. The airplanes today have a fixed wing system but the future seems to be more flexible.

A curious cat purring lightly at a bird, lunch, slowly it moves toward the winged creature with the stealth of a trained predator. As it gets closer, the features of the bird get sharper. But wait, the cat is confused, still it attacks and instantaneously the bird takes flight. In flight the steel joints glisten, the cleverly concealed eye for a camera captures everything. The terrain has been mapped, the unheard conversations recorded and it’s another successful mission for our ornithopter.

There is a stereotyped view that hovering bird is a prototype of a plane.  The prototype of a plane is a kite. The difference is obvious: kite is staying in the air due to overcoming of the air drag, while the bird relatively to the air – with its wings fixed – is always going down.  As hinted above, an ornithopter (from Greek ornithos "bird" and pteron "wing") is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. The mechanics inside is divided into flexible wing mechanics and flapping wing mechanics and goes on to add various principles like low Renyolds’ number flight dynamics. Not going too technical here,

One may say - why all the hustle, where is the advantage?

·         
Vtol i.e. vertical landing and take- off: I don’t need to explain this to the gamers out there but for the “lesser” kind here it is.  Imagine no runway!  VTOL allows the craft to operate from a diverse array of airfields, using less space to get airborne unlike CTOl where one has to use a runway to gain enough momentum to take off.

·         Lighter, far less complicated: It works on simple wing design. Unlike airplanes and helicopters, the driving airfoils of the ornithopter have a flapping or oscillating motion, instead of rotary. As with helicopters, the wings usually have a combined function of providing both lift and thrust. Theoretically, the flapping wing can be set to zero angle of attack on the upstroke, so it passes easily through the air. Since typically the flapping airfoils produce both lift and thrust, drag-inducing structures are minimized.

·         Capable of long time loitering and hence great for surveys and stealth missions.

·         Finally the element of surprise, camouflage and to say a more natural feel in a sense.

·         Understanding the real birds a bit better

·         Maneuverability which the steel giants defiantly lack.

These are few of the many advantages that an ornithopter has over the conventional aircrafts we see today.

What are people in practice doing?

The Colorado Division of Wildlife has used these machines to help save the endangered Gunnison Sage Grouse. An artificial hawk under the control of an operator causes the grouse to remain on the ground so they can be captured for study.

In 2011, AeroVironment, Inc. announced a remotely piloted ornithopter resembling a large hummingbird for possible spy missions.

In 2008, Schiphol Airport started using a real looking mechanical hawk designed by falconer Robert Musters. The radio controlled robot bird is used to scare away birds that could damage the engines of airplanes.

In March 2011, scientists and engineers at the Festo Bionic Learning Network introduced a robotic SmartBird, based on the motion of a seagull. The SmartBird weighs only 450 grams and is controlled by a radio handset. On video, its flight appears remarkably realistic.

Today’s aircraft have nowhere near the agility and precision of nature’s best fliers. “Bats are different from most animals—and from most engineered materials—because they have very flexible wings that offer a lot of interesting aerodynamic properties,” says Kenny Breuer, a mechanical engineer at Brown University. Patrick T. Mather and his team at Syracuse University have created a material with a similar quality: The polymer chains line up to make it stiff and stable in one direction, but 12 times as elastic in the other. Five to 10 years from now, such a material could allow the wings of small unmanned aircraft to flap by expanding and contracting, which would enable planes to fly at slow speeds and pivot precisely during surveillance missions.

So that was the past, the present and now how are these toys going to invent the

future?

In the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert, an ornithopter (or 'thopter) is a type of aircraft that is one of the primary modes of transportation on the desert planet Arrakis. Herbert describes ornithopters as "Aircraft capable of sustained wing-beat flight in the manner of birds" in his 1965 novel Dune.  The craft achieve takeoff primarily though the beat of their wings, with jet power assisting in propulsion and stabilization. His ‘thopters and carryalls were used for transportation, spice harvest, with maul guns could be used in combat and also for space travel.

That was Frank Herbert’s world we have our own:

·         Integration with swarm robotics: Imagine, Thousands of crows pick up litter everyday across cities everywhere across the world, but are they crows?

·         The flapping mechanism of the bird is similar to that of fishes while they swim. In the future we may have biomechanical submarines disguised as sharks, whales or whatever tickles the designers’ imagination. These can be used for mapping underwater terrain, under water tourism, military and what not.

·         With advancement of technology one may even even try to recreate extinct birds and dinosaurs in order to study their flight behaviour.  Going a bit into fantasy, throw in a flame thrower and viola your very own dragons!

There are endless applications of this fascinating concept. Our imaginations may be restricted now, but one can let go and end up creating something worthwhile.

 Lastly, making a rather bold comment, airplanes are too mainstream. The future belongs to amphibots, ornithropters and to the ones who give wings to their dreams.

 “A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, and it is within the capacity of man to reproduce it.”

                                                                                                                      Leonardo Da Vinci

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