Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance

"Yes, it’s a remarkable compendium of essays by the leading academics in the field, explaining how excellence is constructed in each of those areas. It is remarkably extensive, authoritative but also deeply entertaining. 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. On each occasion if you look at chess or sports or maths different compelling stories are told about how the hard work transforms the software that we use to process the information that comes towards us from around the world. It is often very specific so if you build up an expertise as a taxi-driver it is not transferable to being an expert as a mathematician. It is all very narrow and that is why it is really specialisation in the modern world that has permitted us to attain excellence in these various fields. In the old days when we were jack-of-all-trades we really were master of none. It really is hard work extending over very many years. I think the mistake people often make is to think that experts get to the top rather quickly and to think we wouldn’t be able to get that good in a short time frame. But I think if people were to watch the whole process it wouldn’t be quite so mystical – it would just seem the product of hard work."