The Arrow: How precision forms expertise

Expertise is simply precision at command.

This argument can be made through simple observation of the facets that construct expertise. Through observing the lives and careers of great performers across various verticals who had the skills and precision to solve big problems.

For one, expertise is defined by the extensive knowledge an individual consolidates for the specific purposes related to a given field or topic.

In other words, an expert is someone who is concise and specific in his or her ability and capacity to perform or execute.

Precision is key.

By this notion, all great leaders also possess some form of expertise, and all great leaders are precise in their abilities to perform.

This often leads to the organic positioning of the individual leader on the top of a hierarchy, as a direct result of the influence and trust garnered by his or her precision.

When an arrow is released from the bow, an ensemble of variables determine the probability of it landing on its target. These variables include deliberate practice, speed, time and tension, all contributing to the accuracy and effectiveness of the shot.

But there is a master that composes the entire endeavour - the marksman, - who's expertise allows such control over the ultimate win.

Time

Image source: https://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/17/ted.global.ten.questions/index.html

I recently ran a small survey asking the simple question; how long do you think it takes (in years) for one to be considered an expert?

The answers were interesting, with 40 percent of respondents selecting 5 years and above, 40 more percent of respondents selecting 10 years and above, and 20 percent of respondents selecting 20 years and above. No respondents thought that time was not a factor in the making of an expert, so it's fair to say that most of us believe time plays an important role in the development of expertise.

Malcolm Gladwell is a renowned journalist, public speaker, and arguably one of the most celebrated best-selling authors of our time. He popularised the idea of the ten-thousand-hour rule of practice. The concept was largely based on research conducted by the late Anders Ericsson, a Swedish psychologist, Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, who observed the performance over time of violin students at a music academy based in Berlin. His study found that most of the top performers in the batch had put in roughly 10,000 hours of practice by the time they had turned 20.

On that same note, Gladwell spoke about many of the greatest icons of the 21st century putting in the same amount of time into perfecting their craft. According to him, the Beatles had put in about 10,000 hours of practice while playing in Hamburg during the 60s, and Bill Gates got busy programming relentlessly for the same amount of time before eventually establishing Microsoft.

It's worth noting here that the 10,000 hour rule is not actually a rule. This has caused a fair bit of misconceptions which Gladwell and Ericsson have tried to clear up before. The specific number is to be taken more as an average. It's a rough indication of the amount of work one must put in to attain expertise and not a rigid measure on which one should base all progress upon.

Either way, it's clear that the time spent on building up expertise is one crucial component to the puzzle.

Image source: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Herbert_Simon

More than 40 years ago, Herbert Simon and William Chase contributed to the study of expertise with a popular conclusion. Here's an excerpt of their findings as stated in a paper in the American Scientist:

There are no instant experts in chess—certainly no instant masters or grandmasters. There appears not to be on record any case (including Bobby Fischer) where a person reached grandmaster level with less than about a decade's intense preoccupation with the game. We would estimate, very roughly, that a master has spent perhaps 10,000 to 50,000 hours staring at chess positions…

Consistency

The dictionary definition for consistency is "steadfast adherence to the same principles."

When we talk about expertise being precision on command, then we must consider consistency as a component to deliberate performance. An expert should be able to offer his or her skills on a consistent basis, that is, to perform and deliver at will. It's not enough that an expert leader is very effective on occasion. A leader is often put under exceptional pressure to be effective time and time again, or risk having that leadership position compromised.

Experts in the area of entrepreneurship, or professional fields as seen in the medical or financial sector, are judged less by the market on where they attended university or which prestigious accolades decorate their portfolio, but more on whether they have what it takes to be consistent in delivering quality results either through experience, through quality products and services, or through knowledge.?

Focus

Cal Newport - American non-fiction author and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University - writes extensively about the escalating value of focus in our society through his book 'Deep Work'.

His approach to meaning and growth from the development of expertise, revolves around the ability to focus and work deeply.

According to Newport, the knowledge worker must maintain and nourish his mind the same way an athlete maintains the body. Furthermore, the added aspect of intensity must be applied to the work that is done in either profession in order to achieve what he calls the 'stretch' - pushing the limits of one's capability in order to achieve some measure of growth.

This practice of deep work requires deliberate practice of focusing intensely for long periods at a time.

In a podcast, Newport spoke about the reasons why building the ability to focus deeply is so challenging. In the large scale of human history, we as a species have only been able to begin deep work since the era of reading and write. Before that, the height of our intellect involved forming language through verbal interaction.

What comes easier to the human being is primal or baser instinct - reacting to novel stimuli or major environmental changes that stimulate the mind like smells, sounds and sights. These primal urges kept us alive in times of urgent survival.

Once we began to read and write, only then were we able to store information efficiently, to learn, build and contribute new ideas upon existing work from our predecessors. From there, the human civilization has witnessed accelerated growth as a direct result of focusing and working deeply on specific things.

However, the skill of deep work is difficult to attain and easy to lose. If left unchecked, we can revert back to our baser instincts while our intellect is degraded through a lack of deep work.

Cal Newport actively speaks in detail about how to maintain, grow and improve the ability to perform deep work.

In the end, the building of expertise is a much broader and complex process than the few factors mentioned in this article. The simple things to take away from the aforementioned points:

-Expertise can simply be seen as precision on command.

-Precision is fostered through the accumulation of factors like time, focus and deliberate practice.

-To improve as an expert (and as an industry leader), improve in precision by focusing on specific skill sets and specific problems that need to be solved.