The methodology used in this study raises some questions (which were exacerbated by the poor interpretation on the part of the writer) and makes me quite hesitant. First, the link between leisure time and "eliteness" is incredibly weak: free time is a product of a myriad things, and tends to be quite volatile. Moreover, the piece explicitly states that the two groups were destines for largely divergent career paths. Two people who do two different but related jobs likely still spend time in very different ways. For whatever reason, this person seems infatuated with conflating correlation and causation. Frankly, I just don't see how one can draw any conclusion between something as nebulous as free time and something as specific as musical ability. The author doesn't even attempt to prove me wrong.
Second, the author proceeds to extrapolates these results and asserts that everyone ought to adhere to this method of practice. Why? Is there any evidence whatsoever that sugests this is universal, or at the very least common to a few fields? All that is given is this research that is pertinent only to music students. It seems as though laborious, high-stress situations might be preferable to a casual but "deliberate" schedule in a lot of instances. Entrepreneurship and Academics are two domains that come to mind...
This piece is just a very poor interpretation and extrapolation of very specific correlative data. I don't buy these conclusions.
Not only that, but what if the more elite players felt more relaxed because they grasped new concepts more quickly because they simply had a greater base level of talent (genetics, brain make-up, et. al.)?
Let me find a study, breathtakingly misinterpret the results and write an article that has an overly applicative bait-y title and start ringing in the views. It's apparently that fucking easy.
If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong: The Surprisingly Relaxed Lives of Elite Achievers
We can start by disproving the assumption that the elite players dedicate more hours to music. The time diaries revealed that both groups spent, on average, the same number of hours on music per week (around 50).
Were they more relaxed when they were working hard?
Second, the author proceeds to extrapolates these results and asserts that everyone ought to adhere to this method of practice. Why? Is there any evidence whatsoever that sugests this is universal, or at the very least common to a few fields? All that is given is this research that is pertinent only to music students. It seems as though laborious, high-stress situations might be preferable to a casual but "deliberate" schedule in a lot of instances. Entrepreneurship and Academics are two domains that come to mind...
This piece is just a very poor interpretation and extrapolation of very specific correlative data. I don't buy these conclusions.