Stanford duck syndrome: How the myth of effortless genius hurts learning

With that in mind, it is not surprising that the single most important indicator of academic success is not to be found in people’s heads, but in the way they do their everyday work. In fact, there is no measurable correlation between a high IQ and academic success – at least not north of 120. Yes, a certain intellectual capacity helps to get into

K. Anders Ericsson, a professor at Florida State University, found that outstanding performance isn't a result of natural talent. Rather, it is a result of hard work in the form of deliberate practice.

Our children grow up in a culture permeated with the idea that there are “smart people” and “dumb people.” The social construction of the individual is as a bundle of aptitudes. There are people who are “good at math” and people who “can’t do math.” Everything is set up for children to attribute their first unsuccessful or unpleasant learning exper

Somehow we have come to believe that if we are good at something it will not be difficult, that there will not be false starts, bad results, frustration, anguish. A natural, people say admiringly, and what they mean is hard things done with seeming ease, and therefore apparently without effort. I’m not sure why anyone believes this, because the not