Bounce
by Matthew Syed
Now a Times columnist, Syed is a former three-time Commonwealth table tennis champion. He grew up in a road in suburban Reading that produced more outstanding table tennis players in a period of the 1980s than the rest of the UK combined, something he attributes to an inspirational teacher, access to equipment (a table-tennis table) and many thousands of hours of practice. This book was published at about the same time as Malcolm Gladwell popularised the notion that 10,000 hours of practice is necessary to achieve mastery.
Syed dismantles what he calls ‘the myth of talent’ and extols the virtues of practice. He also has interesting things to say about mindset, discrimination (his father is Pakistani) and the value of diversity. He explores this further here in a podcast interview where he makes a compelling case for the importance of diversity when it comes to creative thinking.