Borrow My Brain

In this NY Times Magazine article, Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner explains research into what makes experts expert. It’s not a matter of talent, he says, but a more about the deliberate practice: doing a task repeatedly, with specific goals and milestones to reach, getting immediate feedback on one’s performance, and concentrating on the process of doing rather than the ultimate outcome It should be a task that provides intrinsic enjoyment, because only by doing what one loves will there be the sustained motivation to continue to practice and reach ever high levels of skill.

Does that sound familiar? The characteristics of “deliberat practice”, as he calls it, are the characteristics of games, especially video games. Video games are intrinsicially enjoyable, provide immediate feedback, are played (practiced) over and over, and require higher and higher levels of skill as one progresses. I think it would be possible to take any field where these characteristics aren’t present, and create a game-like computer experience based on in, in order to help people get better faster.

Like billions of others before me, I’ve decided to start a blog.   In Internet terms, this means I’m now a real person.

In spite of having worked in the Internet industry for years, and having worked on hundreds of websites for businesses and startups, my personal presence online has been rather minimal. Sort of like the shoemaker’s family that has no shoes. So I guess I now have shoes.