Sorry, but practice alone does not make perfect

By Guillermo Campitelli

We’ve all heard it before (usually accompanied by repeating hours of music scales or sports drills over and over):

Practice makes perfect.

But your music teachers and sports coaches were wrong - well, mostly. Practice only accounts for around one third of “perfection”, and the oft-quoted motto should be reworded to:

Practice makes perfect … but only if you also have natural talent and start early enough.

[Read more] ...