Practising deeper

The author presents 2 columns (A and B) of related words and asks the reader to read the words.
Column A: ocean/breeze leaf/tree ...
Column B: bread/b_tter music/l_rics ...
Now He asks the reader to recollect as many words as possible from both lists. I had recollected more words from column B. This is why (in author's words): "When you encountered the words with blank spaces, some-thing both imperceptible and profound happened. You stopped, You stumbled ever so briefly, then figured it out. You experienced a microsecond of struggle, and that microsecond made all the difference. You didn't practice harder when you looked at column B. You practiced deeper... Deep practise is ... experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them...One real encounter, even for a few seconds, is far more useful than several hundred observations... It's all about finding the sweet spot... There's an optimal gap between what you know and what you're trying to do. When you find the sweet spot, learning takes off." This is why pilots learn better in flight simulators. The pilots "could dive, stall, and recover, spending hours inhabiting the sweet spot at the edge of his capabilities in ways he could never risk in an actual plane."
- "The Talent Code' by Daniel Coyle

Operating at the edge of ability

"The people inside the talent hotbeds are engaged in an activity that seems, on the face of it, strange and surprising. They are seeking out the slippery hills... They are purposely operating at the edge of their ability, so they can screw up. And somehow screwing up is making them better. "

- "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle

Moments of slow, fitful struggle

"When I started visiting talent hotbeds, I expected to be dazzled... those expectations were met and exceeded - about half the time... During the other half I witnessed something very different: moments of slow, fitful struggle,... They slammed to a halt; they stopped, looked, and thought carefully before taking each step. Making progress became a matter of small failures, a rhythmic pattern of botches, as well as something else: a shared facial expression. Their taut, intense squint..."

- "The talent code" by Daniel Coyle