My Journey in Deliberate Practice
Mastering repetition and feedback
I’ve been struggling with a question for some weeks1 now: What is the best way to measure the quality of a DeepDives post?
I don’t think this is a trivial question. Some of the obvious measuring metrics are misleading.
The number of views is one example.
The assumption is that people read posts they find interesting. This is reasonable but the number of views also depends on which social media I post on: Instagram, Twitter. And it doesn’t help that I post infrequently2.
The number of likes is another metric!
The benefit of this metric is that you need a deliberate connection with a post for you to press the like button. But this is also the downside.
Likes can be a rare commodity, especially when subscribers, like you!, have to open the browser from your email app to press “like.” It’s a better experience on desktop compared to mobile, but I assume most people read these posts on their phones.
Okay, what else is there? The number of new subscribers? Yes, it’s a good metric, but it is limited by my ability to share beyond my current network. There are interesting solutions here though, including an idea about featuring Great writers who don’t write often enough3.
Ah, maybe the number of shares. I am most excited about this one.
Since I try to write posts that have a high return on your invested time, sharing signals the reading was worth it. The challenge is that shares aren’t common, so they face the same problem as likes — even though they are a better indicator of the quality of a post.
So why get into all this? Because so far, getting feedback has been my challenge with Deliberate practice — a powerful concept about improving by 1% every day.
Deliberate practice
Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance. — James Clear
Deliberate practice is like Spaced Repetition. While Spaced Repetition is a technique that speeds up learning by increasing retention, Deliberate practice is a technique that speeds up improvement in skill through repetition and feedback. What they have in common is that a lot of people know the techniques, but few people successfully apply them.
I am a beginner in mastering and understanding Deliberate practice. But despite my naivete, it is clear that one non-negotiable is getting your reps in.
Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment - Zig Ziglar
Repetition: getting your reps in
The first rule in achieving outlier performance is a dedication to the craft — showing up every day.
Deliberate practice is one of the secrets of 99th percentile performance. Running 100m in under 10 seconds requires many hours of practice. Hours spent reviewing running times with a coach. Hours spent repeating drills to get 1% better. All those hours make a difference.
Implementing a system that helps you show up consistently is an important part of improving whichever skill you want to develop. It’s even easier if you can build a habit around it4.
However, showing up is not all there is to Deliberate Practice. Deliberate practice has another critical component — feedback. That’s the one I’m struggling with.
Feedback
Perhaps the greatest difference between deliberate practice and simple repetition is this: feedback. Anyone who has mastered the art of deliberate practice—whether they are an athlete like Ben Hogan or a writer like Ben Franklin—has developed methods for receiving continual feedback on their performance. — James Clear
Feedback is a critical piece in improvement. In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries explains the cycle of Learn, Build, Measure — a model for innovative organizations. The learning and building parts are synonymous with reading and writing. I have that covered5. But the Measure part is important and somewhat missing.
What are some methods for getting feedback under Deliberate practice?
How to get Feedback
A proven mentor.
One consistent finding across disciplines is that coaches are often essential for sustaining deliberate practice. In many cases, it is nearly impossible to both perform a task and measure your progress at the same time. Good coaches can track your progress, find small ways to improve, and hold you accountable to delivering your best effort each day.
On finding a mentor, it’s true that it’s challenging, and it’s true that I’ve been lazy. That’s the thing about writing these posts. I’m forced to think deeply and genuinely. I can’t just tell you getting a mentor is difficult and throw my hands in the air. I have to admit that my laziness on this point is the first source of my feedback problem.
But allow me to be lazy for a bit longer so I can explore other ways to measure performance.
Measuring by yourself
Developing refined taste is usually part of the subskills needed to be a good writer, artist, programmer, and so on for other skill-based professions. It’s worth spending time on consuming the kind of work you hope to produce.
For writing, I have learned both clear and subconscious lessons from reading books and newsletters. Some of the best writing I have read are by James Clear, Malcolm Gladwell, and then Sahil Bloom on Twitter!
However, my ability to critique myself is not as accurate as I would want (See #1).
When it comes to measuring myself, it’s not true that “I can’t tell.“ I just feel less confident because the number of views, likes, shares, comments, don’t always match my assessment. This can be discouraging exactly because of #3.
Ask Others
have friends you trust read your stuff and tell you which bits are confusing or drag; ..if you say anything mistaken, fix it immediately; ask friends which sentence you'll regret most; go back and tone down harsh remarks; publish stuff online, because an audience makes you write more, and thus generate more ideas — Paul Graham
The main idea is that your friends can catch your blindspots better than you can. Getting truly insightful feedback is priceless. I am consistently surprised by how many of Paul Graham’s posts are reviewed by Jessica Livingston, John, and Patrick Collison — Y-Combinator founders, and Stripe founders respectively.
Since I know most Deep-Dives readers, I consider you, here, right now, reading these words, as a friend who I would love to get feedback from. Though I already get varying levels of feedback from some subscribers, one thing that is true for everyone is I want to hear more from you!
There are two broad ways you can help. The first big way is at the bottom of this post. The second way has two options: Press the like button or share, according to the following:
Pressing the like button is you telling me: “Hey! notice this. You’re doing something good in this post“ — implies good writing.
Sharing the article with a friend tells me: “Hey, that’s one of the more useful things I’ve read today. I think my friend will also want to read this?“ — implies impactful information.
A few quick Notes: After more thought, sharing the article is the best signal. This is because I care most about Impact. Second, I have to work on frequently and consistently showing up to writing these posts. Remember “get your reps in“.
Where do you start? Check the last 4 posts. Check that you’ve pressed like or shared if you’ve felt that way.
And if you’re stuck trying to get better at Deliberate practice in a skill, do two things.
One, figure out how to show up frequently and consistently.
Two, figure out how to get as much feedback, as often as you can.
That’s what I’m doing.
By the way
The other way you can help is by dropping feedback about a post in this comment box.
I want this link to be a way for any subscriber to easily get more involved. When you send comments/feedback about a previous post, and if you opt-in to be an early bird, two things can happen.
One is that you can read an early draft of the next Deep-Dives post. (Guaranteed)
The second is you can get featured on the Blog! More instructions to come in a post about the Internet and Web servers. For now, go fill out the form!
really months
This is the first clue to the solution. I should be, not posting, but writing more frequently. Though it also translates into posting more.
Based on how many times I have read this sentence. I’m entirely foreshadowing as opposed to deliberating.
I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing daily
I only partly have this mastered though. One thing I have understated in this article might surprise you. It’s the importance of showing up frequently and consistently. It’s simple and difficult, and therefore profound.