How many subregions are there in PASAI?

Four: Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and other.

Does practice make perfect?

No, not necessarily. While evidence does stress the importance of practice as a major contributing factor to mastery, practice is not the only contributing factor. According to one research paper, “people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence.” OUCH!!

Two good examples which demonstrate how practice alone does not lead to mastery is driving and cooking. While many people spend thousands of hours of their lives practicing these two, few would quibble over the fact that many of us cannot be labelled as master drivers or cooks.

The same can apply in our professional practice as well. When monitoring people who have been in their profession for years, we have learnt that sometimes it is not necessarily 20 years of experience, sometimes it is simply one year, or even one day, of experience being repeated/practised over 20 years. 

To gain mastery, deliberate practice is best. By deliberate practice, we mean “constantly pushing oneself beyond one’s comfort zone, following training activities designed by an expert to develop specific abilities, and using feedback to identify weaknesses and work on them.”

Think about it. If we repeat the same thing without making improvements each time and call it practice, how is it going to help us gain mastery?