Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Peak

The book Peak is a productivity book. It is written to help you do better in life.

Written by two authors, it is a combination of psychological and physiological expertise.

Let's begin the book with a story.

Seven and half hours after his death, the brain of Albert Einstein was removed. It was removed by Doctor Thomas Stoltz Harvey. Harvey took the brain to a lab at the University of Pennsylvania where he dissected it into several pieces; some of the pieces he kept to himself while others were given to leading pathologists.

Harvey had stolen the brain believing that by studying it he would find an explanation for Einstein’s genius. Albert Einstein is one of the foremost geniuses of the 20th Century. He was Time Person of The Century. He died a very successful person. He received the nobel prize, a crusader of peace, a successful physicist and a popular celebrity whose words everyone cared to listen. He had the ears of the media and the political powers that be. In fact, he was offered the Presidency of Israel, but he rejected it.

The world is fascinated by genius. By great men. By extraordinary people.

We easily want to explain things by saying certain people are genius and there’s no explanation for why they do what they do. This is an easy position. Is it not easier for us to believe that Cristiano Ronaldo is just gifted by the gods of football than to study how he became the favourite player that he is?

Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool do not agree that geniuses are just “gifted”. Close up. Let’s do something else.  The ideas of Anders and Robert are nothing short of revolutionary. If we end up believing them, what we can have is that all of us can become “geniuses” in the end. The idea begins simply by disproving that “geniuses” are born!

Yes, there is no such thing as naturally born geniuses.

There's no such as some people are just born great.

Does that mean there are no gifted people? no no. that’s not the point here. In fact, there are gifted people! But the gift alone does not make genius.

And all of us are gifted. Just differently.

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

The book asserts that the human mind and body is created to adapt.

Our system can adapt to many things, in fact, almost all things.

It asserts that the way to harness these abilities is through practice. It mentions examples and theories of practice.

The book contains the stuffs you should read if you want to be the best where you are.

- Review Compiled by Lengdung Tungchamma 

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