An Expert on Experts Gets His Due

Anders Ericsson, whose fascinating research on talent we’ve written about before, was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. “He has earned the reputation of the world’s expert on expertise, and I am very pleased that his accomplishments have been formally recognized by such an elite academic group,” said Janet Kistner, the chair of the psychology department at The Florida State University, where Ericsson is on the faculty. Ericsson explained why people are so interested in his research: “A lot of people want to be the very best they can be. The deliberate practice notion has kind of opened up the possibility that people can achieve higher levels of performance than they previously thought possible.”[%comments]