Black Box Thinking

Matthew Syed

Black Box Thinking

by Matthew Syed

Black Box Thinking

Matthew Syed

5 min

3 key insights

Visual, audio & text

Black Box Thinking reveals that all paths to success stem from initial failure, teaching you the steps towards accepting your mistakes, approaching setbacks with courage and not dejection, and building your own black box from the lessons that failure gives you.

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Black Box Thinking

by Matthew Syed

Black Box Thinking

Matthew Syed

Overview

Deliberate practice is a concept that features in many books debunking talent and world-class performance, including So Good They Can’t Ignore You, The Talent Code, Talent Is Overrated, and the very predecessor of this book, Matthew Syed’s Bounce. In its essence, deliberate practice is the act of intentionally repeating a practice or new skill over and over, with purpose and focus, in order to master it.

But if deliberate practice is our sure-fire road to success, then failure is the way to get there. Learning from your mistakes is the whole idea of deliberate practice, but in reality, this is a lot harder than it sounds. Why? Because most people don’t like mistakes. And if they mess up, they hate admitting that they’ve done so. Black Box Thinking is about changing that mentality. With these lessons in mind, you can do what’s necessary to get where you need to go.