Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, And The Science Of Success Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
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.
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (May 3, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061723762
ISBN-13: 978-0061723766
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #126,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #100 in Books > Business & Money > Industries > Sports & Entertainment #643 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture > General #1809 in Books > Self-Help > Success
As you probably already know, the main message/goal of Matthew Syed's book Bounce is to discredit the established notion that success in highly complex tasks (athletics in this case) is entirely due to innate ability. Instead, he argues, it is thousands of hours of purposeful, challenging practice and determination to improve that create the superior skill observed in top athletes, chess players and professionals in other fields.Syed writes in a conversational tone that is very engaging and easy to follow. He does a decent job articulating his arguments and uses scientific evidence, personal experience as a table tennis Olympian and anecdotes from famous athletes to back up his claims. Additionally, this book has plenty of good insight, for example: the amount of practice it takes on average to acquire a high level of skill in a particular activity; the difference between regular practice and purposeful practice; why certain races are falsely perceived to be "naturally" good at certain sports; how children respond when they are rewarded for talent vs. hard work; the physiology of choking during a performance and many others.Despite the good stuff, certain parts of the book were not entirely convincing. Here is an example. Rationally, it's not too hard to buy into the idea that hard work and talent breed excellence. The problem is that this still doesn't quite explain what makes those people that start mastering a skill at a very early age gravitate towards say soccer ball vs. violin. Or why some children who are as young as two (before any meaningful parental intervention) enjoy being challenged and thrive on practicing a skill, while others shy away from it. Another interesting notion that is not discussed in this book is the speed of learning.
Matthew Syed's Bounce has an interesting thesis. In the vain of Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success and Colvin's Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, Syed attempts to argue against the idea or 'raw talent.' A former table-tennis champion, Syed wants to show us that excellence - particularly of the sporting and artistic variety - is a better predictor of success than innate talent.Syed presents three lines of data to bolster his argument: personal anecdote from his sporting days, knowledge he has gained about athelets and their backgrounds he has gained from being a sports writer, and summaries of studies done by psychologists (many of the same ones appearing in the two above-cited books). The first chapter is largely Syed's retelling of his own ascent to the top of table-tennis, where he points out that the fact that his town produced quite a few table-tennis stars is enough to at least call into question the 'talent myth.' Later, he goes into some histories of great artists and sports stars - Mozart, Federer, the Williams sisters, Tiger Woods, the chess champion Polgar sisters - to show that it was not so much raw talent, but extraordinary dedication and deep practice that helped them succeed. By way of studies, Syed cites several by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson whose work suggests that the difference between 'good' and 'great' is better predicted by practice than most any other factor.
This is a good book, but not a great one. It has many good ideas within it, and it also does a good job of demolishing some old icons. It is a work of synthesis and it is honest enough to acknowledge the influence of many other books including Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else and Outliers: The Story of Success As I had already read these two books I found the ideas in Bounce familiar. Its main failing is the lack of a summary chapter at the end bringing the book to a conclusion. It just ends.Bounce is superb at demolishing the ideas of "innate talents" and "genetic endowments and "racial characteristics." Syed points out the combinations of factors that come together to allow top performance to emerge. It is usually some combination of focused and genuine enthusiasm, opportunity, certain local quirks; disciplined practice and well trained experience. The initial enthusiasm for a task has to come from within- which allows the learner to put up with the knocks and setbacks on the way to becoming good at something. He explains very well why parents can try pushing their children into something...but probably won't get great results by so doing. The proverb about leading the horse to water, but not being able to get them to drink comes to mind. This leaves open an obvious niche for a book that helps parents to recognise and go with their child's talents and abilities.
Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success What's So Great About Picasso?: A Guide to Pablo Picasso Just For Kids! Bounce The Big Bounce Odell Beckham Jr. (Amazing Athletes (Paperback)) David Beckham (People in the News) Beckham: Both Feet on the Ground: An Autobiography Money: Saving Money: Success: Get More Money & Success In Your Life Now!: 3 in 1 Box Set: Money Making Strategies, Saving Money Strategies & World's Best ... Tips for Personal Finance & Life Success) Pablo Picasso: Lithographs and linocuts, 1945-1964 : with an introductory essay on the history of lithography and of the linocut Picasso Line Drawings and Prints (Dover Fine Art, History of Art) The Woman Who Says No: Françoise Gilot on Her Life With and Without Picasso - Rebel, Muse, Artist Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail (Anholt's Artists Books For Children) Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail Picasso and Minou The World's Best Memoir Writing: The Literature of Life from St. Augustine to Gandhi, and from Pablo Picasso to Nelson Mandela In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and the Birth of Modernist Art History's Greatest Artists: The Life and Legacy of Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso: The Lithographs Picasso Lithographs (Dover Art Library) Picasso (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)
