Reading List
Matthew Syed
Journalist and Author
Matthew Syed is a British journalist, author and broadcaster who writes about performance, failure and how groups think. He was England’s number one table tennis player for almost a decade and competed at two Olympic Games before turning to journalism.
Bounce (2010) argued that excellence is built through practice and opportunity rather than innate talent. Black Box Thinking (2015) contrasted aviation’s habit of learning from every error with medicine’s reluctance to do the same, and Rebel Ideas (2019) made the case for cognitive diversity in teams.
He writes a column for The Times and presents the BBC podcast Sideways.
The Mighty Walzer
by Howard Jacobson
“He has an ability to articulate the psychology of sport even at an amateur level. Even when it is being played at the local Allied Jam and Marmalade factory on a table in the basement where the ball keeps going behind stacked-up chairs or falling behind the stage. It was very evocative of my learning to play table tennis, and Jacobson has a rare genius for encapsulating the sociology of the thing.” — via Interview, December 2010
Heuristics and Biases
The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment
by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin and Daniel Kahneman
“This is another really good set of essays in a rapidly growing branch of intellectual enquiry called behavioural economics where they look at the irrationalities in the way that humans behave. I thought this was brilliant. One essay in particular on irrational optimism caught my eye.” — via Interview, December 2010
Self-theories
Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development
by Carol S. Dweck
“But if, on the other hand, you believe that excellence hinges on effort you don’t take failure as an indictment but as an opportunity to grow. If it is true that excellence hinges on effort you will eventually excel. Dweck has lots of research to show that we can inculcate the growth mind set – the mind set that believes that excellence hinges on effort by praising effort rather than talent.” — via Interview, December 2010
Enhancing Evolution
The Ethical Case for Making Better People
by John Harris
“Harris is a brilliant essayist and the book explores and explodes a great deal of conservatism in bioethics. His arguments are compelling. He is sort of a radical utilitarian. He thinks that we should embrace any technologies that make life go better for humanity and not to turn these things down because either we feel squeamish or it sounds too radical. He says the basic test is: does it make life better?” — via Interview, December 2010
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance
by K. Anders Ericsson
“It covers everything from expertise in chess to expertise in psychology and computer science and mathematics. There is sexual expertise and medicine as well. Throughout all these different fields the consensus is the excellence is constructed on hard work but it nuances that explanation all the way through. For me it is a wonderful set of essays and required reading for anyone interested in the subject.” — via Interview, December 2010