Absolutely, and this is right at the center of Ericsson's theory of excellence, learning and deliberate practice [1]. He calls this 'mental representations', an

Absolutely, and this is right at the center of Ericsson's theory of excellence, learning and deliberate practice [1]. He calls this 'mental representations', and together with the 'brain's flexibility' they form the 2 pillars of his theory. The rest of the theory (e.g., deliberate practice) stems from these 2, that is, how can we actually change our brain to record in our long-term memory the most and best (pre-computed) mental representations. That's what distinguishes an expert: the quantity and quality of the mental representations. The method involves 6 factors that have to be adapted to the specific skill: * 1. having specific goals * 2. getting slightly out of your comfort zone * 3. focus and concentration during practice (ideally close to 1 hour) * 4. feedback * 5. practising a sufficiently developed human activity * 6. having a teacher/coach (and keep getting a better one, adjusted to your current level) * 7. (additional point: starting early in life) Point 5 is the difference between practising, say, the violin (for which we have literally centuries of the best performers teaching the following generations, always improving, up to a near threshold) to practising say skateboard which is a few decades old of serious practice or any recent boardgame, say. No one knows what are the best tactics and strategies. Even sports: consider how many world records from some years ago would not qualify you for the olympics today. Naturally if you're not learning the violin but something else less developed, you just try to find the best current method and mental representations, and discover better ones to gain a decisive edge on your competion (with perhaps less practice time or talent (eg, height)). I also agree with your point on metacognition, but that's an even broader subject to discuss. [1] https://smile.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/dp/0544456238 https://smile.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/...