Here’s an update on Chapter 7 of Cognitive Productivity. I’ve published most of this chapter already. I’ve written a first draft of all but the final section of that chapter.

In the unpublished part of Chapter 7, I describe some of the most promising frameworks for improving one’s professional and personal competence. My purpose is to build a new framework that leverages some of the strengths of these frameworks while overcoming their weaknesses.

Here is the outline of the unpublished part of Chapter 7. Don’t let the jargon throw you, it’s explained simply in the book.

7 Deliberate practice: Mastery’s imperative

…

• 7.3 Deliberate practice and expertise
  • 7.3.1 K. Anders Ericsson’s theory of the development of expertise. (This is the framework that was popularized by Malcom Gladwell in his book, Outliers.)
  • 7.3.2 Beyond Ericsson’s theory of expertise. Here, I describe important weaknesses of Ericsson’s framework. For example, it had not been adapted to personal and professional development.
• 7.4 Reflective practice and deliberate performance. I describe these frameworks. The first was proposed by Donald A. Schön. The second by Peter J. Fadde and Gary A. Klein. I propose that the outputs of reflective practice can be used as inputs to productive practice. The same can be said of deliberate performance. In other words, we need to do something extra in order to instill the insights we come to at work and about our work.
• 7.5. Enter productive practice. Here I propose that the various forms of practice described in this chapter (test-enhanced learning, cognitive skill acquisition, deliberate practice, reflective practice and deliberate performance) can contribute to productive practice. Productive practice is a form of deliberate practice designed for knowledge workers. Here I specify the major requirements of productive practice. Productive practice itself is described in Chapters 13 and 14 of the Cognitive Productivity.

I’m quite excited about this chapter. Its final section will effectively synthesize Part 1 (the requirements of cognitive productivity) and Part 2 (the science of cognitive productivity). This sets the stage for Part 3, which contains tips and strategies for cognitive productivity.

The rest of the book has already been published, except for the conclusion.

 

2013-10-25 Update.

This chapter is now available in its entirety.