Altogether now: if π you π donβt π have π good π pedagogical π development π in π your π field π you π canβt π do π deliberate π practice!
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Can you elaborate more this? Any articles links on this concept that βif you donβt have good pedagogical development in your field, you canβt do deliberate practiceβ?
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If Iβm remembering the commoncog tacit knowledge series right, the argument is that deliberate practice requires legible knowledge of what expertise looks like, out of the heads of experts
If you just have expertise you canβt explain, then you canβt do deliberate practice.
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βExpertise you canβt explainβ is tacit knowledge.
One connection that highlights the distinction for me: not all domain experts are good teachers. You can have tacit knowledge of a field with solid pedagogy, without knowing the pedagogy.
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Actually the claim is more specific. Ericssonβs definition of DP demands that it be performed under guidance of a coach, in a domain with an established body of pedagogical techniques.
(See: Peak).
Anything less than this is considered βpurposeful practiceβ, not DP.
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As a result of this requirement, you cannot do DP if: a) you want to get better at a skill with no good set of pedagogical techniques, and b) no set of coaches who can use those techniques on you.
Think of skills like playing org politics, code taste, or M&A negotiations, etc
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Right. It's key to note that the issue here is partly definitionalβi.e. deliberate practice is *defined to be* practice with this set of properties. But it's also practical: without those properties, you need some other way of attaining expertise (through practice or otherwise).
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I think whatβs really interesting is that expertise research seems to have branched into two paths: one focuses on DP, which demands pedagogical development, and the other seeks to do identify and extract tacit knowledge from the heads of experts, to turn into training programs.
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Aren't these the same?
Isn't creating training programs pedagogical development?
Is there any research on how new innovations are developed? In other words, how is tacit knowledge developed on the frontiers of expertise?
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Training program: I create a program that gets you to level up in some skill.
Pedagogical development: I discover a new way to train you thatβs more effective than prior methods; my technique is adapted by other coaches and recombined over a few years of trial and error.
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Because DP demands that a coach breaks down a skill into subskills for training, you need to have some understanding of what the subskills are, and what exercises work best for them.
Whereas the tacit knowledge extraction approach skips that completely in favour of simulations.




