Must read article in SciAm answers a question often asked on ET: Born or Made?

I will quote a very interesting part from an article above:

"...Amateurs, by contrast, use short-term memory while playing chess. When they take in new information, it stays in the "small hard drive" of working memory without passing over into the "zip drive" of long-term memory. "Amateurs are overwriting things they've already learned," says Amidzic. "Can you imagine how frustrating that is!..."

There is an interesting article that I read recently, but I can't remember where I read it [It didn't make it to long term memory :D]. It was discussing the function of sleep (we don't really know why we sleep.) I am paraphrasing below:

I claim that sleeping patterns is a key difference between amateurs and professionals that work equally hard. Bobby Fischer was known to sleep prodigious amounts of hours. It is now only beginning to be learned that the function of sleeping is to make the brain forget, as the real estate inside the brain is very valuable. It does this by sending out random signals to see how many of the weak connections it formed that waking day it can break (forget.) The connections that survive the "sleep onslaught" on neuronal connections have a great chance of making it to long term memory - imo the key to greatness.

The difference between greatness and average may be nothing more than effortful study combined with the gift of sleeping "right," or perhaps not sleeping at all!

There are also connections with depression and sleeplesness, or perhaps not sleeping "right", another link between "creative genius" and brain disfunctions. The clues are there for someone to put it all together.

nitro
 
Quote from stereo70:

You are out of your element talking about tennis w/ these huge, sweeping generalities. Federer not having a decent serve?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

His serve is awesome. I don't know if you play tennis or not, but serving has much more to do with placement and disguising the type of spin you're putting on the ball than it does pure MPH.

Nadal is basically the only player that's beat him multiple times in the last few years (mostly on clay). There is a huge gap between #1 and the rest; probably the biggest gap that's ever exisited.


The difference between Federer and everyone else that has EVER played the game is this: He plays the crucial points effortlessly, and steps up his game consistently at the right time, to demoralize his opponents. Why he is able to do this doesn't really matter; just that he does.

And there was a time when he wasn't as able to control his emotions. The death of his coach, according to him, is what changed that part of his game.

No offense meant, but I feel the need to defend my 27 years of "Effortful Study"



:p

Actually bro, I do play tennis, a lot of tennis. And I'm sorry, we have to disagree here. Federer serve is avg at best and certainly is the least talked about shot in his game, granted his other strokes are about as good as they get.

Federer is known for having the best forehand in the game. He also moves around the court better then anyone. Not necessarily the fastest, but just the way he moves. His backhand is solid as is his net play.

Yes, Federer has good placement on his serve but come on man, it's no where near Roddick's. And I'm not saying Andy's serve is good because of the speed. Quite the opposite. I've seen the kid play matches where he has 5 aces or less and drop 5 pts on his serve the entire match.

This is not up for debate, his serve is the most dominating on the men's tour. Not because of the speed, but because of his placement as well!!!!!
 
Actually bro, I do play tennis, a lot of tennis. And I'm sorry, we have to disagree here. Federer serve is avg at best and certainly is the least talked about shot in his game, granted his other strokes are about as good as they get.

Federer is known for having the best forehand in the game. He also moves around the court better then anyone. Not necessarily the fastest, but just the way he moves. His backhand is solid as is his net play.

Yes, Federer has good placement on his serve but come on man, it's no where near Roddick's. And I'm not saying Andy's serve is good because of the speed. Quite the opposite. I've seen the kid play matches where he has 5 aces or less and drop 5 pts on his serve the entire match.

This is not up for debate, his serve is the most dominating on the men's tour. Not because of the speed, but because of his placement as well!!!!!


I see...you're the arbiter of what's up for debate. Good to know.

One cannot extrapolate out categories of the elegance that is Federer playing tennis.

Playing a lot of tennis has nothing to do with your inexpert analysis. Roddick has a great kick serve when it's on. You hit a lot of kick serves, Mav?

I hear Roddick's pretty good at handball, too.
 
Quote from stereo70:

I see...you're the arbiter of what's up for debate. Good to know.


Relax dude. This is tennis talk, not foreign policy. This thread is straying off topic a little.
 
Relax dude. This is tennis talk, not foreign policy. This thread is straying off topic a little.


Sorry, it's the steroids. They make me testy...:p

I'll take it you don't hit a lot of kick serves.


Back to you, Roddick, and handball...
 
Quote from stereo70:

Sorry, it's the steroids. They make me testy...:p

I'll take it you don't hit a lot of kick serves.


Back to you, Roddick, and handball...

How many Federer posters do u have on your wall? If you're not a teenager anymore, I think you should take them down. At a certain age, it becomes creepy u know. :p
 
How many Federer posters do u have on your wall? If you're not a teenager anymore, I think you should take them down. At a certain age, it becomes creepy u know.


That's about as clever as your mom...:eek:
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Well then, let me direct you to two excellent books I have read on this very subject.

http://www.amazon.com/Mean-Markets-...=pd_bbs_1/103-9621048-1542268?ie=UTF8&s=books


http://www.amazon.com/Mean-Genes-Ta...=pd_bbs_2/103-9621048-1542268?ie=UTF8&s=books

Two of the better books you will ever read on this subject. So if you are serious about this and getting to the core of this issue, you will pick up a copy of these books and read them. They are both quick and easy reads.

Eh, the "lizard brain" idea is nothing new. I first read it in a Carl Sagan book when I was 13. The amygdala is the emotional fight-or-flight center of the brain that reacts to stress. That and the surrounding tissue is an evolutionary structure that the neocortex is built around. When people react to stressful situations without proper training, blood going to the neocortex is short cut and routed there. Adrenaline surges, digestion shuts down, and you prepare to act on a moment's notice. Markets are always made up of people untrained in undercutting their fight-or-flight response, so they are prone to boom and bust cycles when extraordinary events disturb the psychological equilibrium of market participants.

I probably summed up those books entirely, right there.

Notice how the second book has "taming" in the title. All it takes is training to stop that, just like a marine or a pro golfer. All of that is secondary to the cognitive skills described in this article, which are different kind of <i>thinking</i> when problem solving.
 
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