7 ms·
"an hour of playing in front of a crowd, where the focus is on delivering the best possible performance at the time, is not the same as an hour of focused, goal
by Taek 10y ago
"an hour of playing in front of a crowd, where the focus is on delivering the best possible performance at the time, is not the same as an hour of focused, goal-driven practice"
A different study tested students on their ability to make clay pots. Some students were scored on the quality of each pot. Others were only scored based on quantity.
The students that emphasized quantity were able to make better pots by the end of the study. By aiming for quantity over quality, they were able to deliver both.
Performing puts a lot of pressure on you and a more direct focus on the mistakes and triumphs that count. I wouldn't be too quick to disregard how valuable it could be, because it forces you to follow through and work on all the important things.
- barry-cotter 10y agoThis story originates on coding horror and when gwern of gwern.net, active on this website checked the chain of citations the claim was not supported. It may be true but there's no evidence for it.
- kens 10y agoI tried to find the original source of the quality-vs-quantity pottery class story a while back. I think it originates in the book "Art and Fear" but in that book it reads like a parable rather than a factual event. (And it's definitely not a study in that book.)
- kens 10y agoWell, I checked with one of the authors of "Art and Fear", and it turns out that the quality-vs-quantity pottery class is a true story, except it wasn't a ceramics class as written, but a university level photography class! They changed it to pottery in the book because they had too many photography examples already.