November 3, 2026 · Knowledge Management Made Simple
Imagine practising something every day for ten years.
Wonderful! You must be an expert!
But what if you’ve been practising the same mistake?
Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson explored this problem through his research on deliberate practice.
His idea was simple: improvement requires more than repetition. It needs focused effort, specific goals and useful feedback.
Let’s explore three funny examples.
1. Pavel’s Piano Concert
Pavel practises the same piano song 100 times.
Unfortunately, he plays one note incorrectly every time.
“Excellent!” he says. “I’ve practised for ten hours!”
Oxana listens.
“Congratulations! You’ve become an expert at playing the wrong note.”
She helps him practise the difficult passage slowly and correctly.
What did we learn?
Repeating a mistake doesn’t automatically improve performance. Focused practice targets specific weaknesses.
2. Oxana’s Pancake Challenge
Pavel wants to make perfect pancakes.
His first pancake burns.
His second pancake burns.
His third pancake looks like a meteorite.
“Maybe I need another thousand pancakes!”
Oxana suggests checking the temperature and adjusting one thing at a time.
The next pancake looks better.
What did we learn?
Useful feedback helps identify what needs improvement.
3. The English Word Disaster
Pavel learns the English word “through.”
He repeats it twenty times.
Unfortunately, nobody understands him.
“Perhaps English is broken!”
Oxana plays a recording and helps him compare his pronunciation.
He practises the difficult sounds separately.
Finally, the word sounds clearer.
What did we learn?
Practising a specific difficulty can be more productive than repeating an entire task without correction.
The Big Idea
Deliberate practice involves clear goals, focused effort, appropriate challenges and feedback.
But practice isn’t a magical guarantee of expertise. The quality of training, individual differences and other conditions also matter.
Why This Matters for Knowledge Management
A good knowledge system should preserve not only instructions but also feedback, common mistakes and successful learning methods.
What About Artificial Intelligence?
AI can help identify errors, suggest exercises and track progress.
But its feedback must be reliable and improvement should be checked through actual performance.
Anders Ericsson’s Words
As Ericsson and his colleagues wrote:
“Deliberate practice includes activities that have been specially designed to improve the current level of performance.”
Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Römer, The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance, Psychological Review, 1993, Vol. 100(3), p. 368.
The takeaway: Don’t just practise more. Practise what you need to improve.
Because making the same terrible pancake 1,000 times doesn’t automatically make you a che
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