My Authors
Read all threads
Fun inversion from Thorndike (1921). The normal angle is: "Why are some people so much better at some things? What are the limits of expertise?" He reframes to: "Why do most people remain so mediocre at things they spend their whole lives doing?"

andymatuschak.org/files/papers/T… (p. 178)
You can tell he's kind of mad about it (particularly see the following page here). I find this a bit odd. In many of the more mundane cases he cites (e.g. handwriting) it probably is sensible to reach some threshold and just stay there!
But he also cites decision-making as a common "plateau" skill. That's probably worth improving at for many people! It makes me want to add an entry to his list of possible explanations: it may not be obvious that radical improvement is possible.
You know what virtuosic pianists sound like, so when you play, you'll naturally compare to those mental recordings (and feel painfully how much improvement is possible)! Military officers are trained to make strategic and decisive decisions, but that’s much less salient!
OK, Silicon Valley types often read The Art of War etc. Not sure to what extent that approximates officer training!

But if you're a small business owner, I suspect that Decision-Making, as an abstract skill, wouldn’t normally appear on the “skill weightlifting” menu.
So to create opportunities for expert action, it's necessary not only to enable higher levels of performance, but also to increase the salience that radical improvement is possible/desirable. It may also be necessary to structure new contexts which demand that level of expertise!
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Enjoying this thread?

Keep Current with Andy Matuschak

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!