buna fetelor!

unt de shea nu am incercat inca, dar mi-am luat de pe breslo unt de cacao si unt de cocos; am topit
100 gr. din untul de cacao si 50 gr. din unt de cocos la bain-mare si le-am turnat in cutii vechi de
crema spalate bine si curatate; dupa ce s-au racit le-am bagat la frigider; s-a intarit compozitia si miam facut un unt de corp minunat de care sunt tare mandra, ma hidrateaza natural, miros ca o
bombonica si ma simt bine;
intra repede in piele si nu o lasa grasa, eu sunt tare multumita; dupa ce ma satur de combinatia asta,
indraznesc sa combin si alte unturi;
incercati si voi, e natural si sanatos;

Decent and insightful read, but could have been better

By Ivan on May 8, 2010
Format: Hardcover Amazon Verified Purchase
As you probably already know, the main message/goal of Matthew Syed's book Bounce is to discredit
the established notion that success in highly complex tasks (athletics in this case) is entirely due to
innate ability. Instead, he argues, it is thousands of hours of purposeful, challenging practice and
determination to improve that create the superior skill observed in top athletes, chess players and
professionals in other fields.

Syed writes in a conversational tone that is very engaging and easy to follow. He does a decent job
articulating his arguments and uses scientific evidence, personal experience as a table tennis
Olympian and anecdotes from famous athletes to back up his claims. Additionally, this book has
plenty of good insight, for example: the amount of practice it takes on average to acquire a high level
of skill in a particular activity; the difference between regular practice and purposeful practice; why
certain races are falsely perceived to be "naturally" good at certain sports; how children respond
when they are rewarded for talent vs. hard work; the physiology of choking during a performance
and many others.

Despite the good stuff, certain parts of the book were not entirely convincing. Here is an example.
Rationally, it's not too hard to buy into the idea that hard work and talent breed excellence. The
problem is that this still doesn't quite explain what makes those people that start mastering a skill at
a very early age gravitate towards say soccer ball vs. violin. Or why some children who are as young
as two (before any meaningful parental intervention) enjoy being challenged and thrive on practicing
a skill, while others shy away from it. Another interesting notion that is not discussed in this book is
the speed of learning. For example when very young children are given an opportunity to do
something new, some will still learn the skill quicker than others when all the other factors, such as
purposeful practice and "growth mentality" have been controlled for. Think for example when a

group of parents take their kids to the same skating rink, with the same instructor for the very first
time. It is hard to argue that after the first half hour or so, some kids will be completely helpless and
falling, others will manage to stand up, while still others will actually be successfully skating around. I
am not arguing that these initial differences cannot be overcome with practice, but how did they
originate in the first place if everyone is tabula rasa as Syed argues? Anyway, my goal here is not to
start a nature vs. environment debate, I am just pointing out some examples that I wish this book
addressed in greater detail.

Overall, Syed's book is still pretty insightful, however as shown in my previous example, I don't think
that his theory of acquisition of skill is complete. This makes the book read kind of a like an almanac
of interesting things about top performers rather than a serious analysis into which part of "talent" is
innate vs. which part is practice. I would love if for his next book, Syed could concentrate on the
aforementioned gaps instead of giving us bits and snippets of "cool pop sci material".