In 2001, Takeru Kobayashi shocked the world by proving that performance could be doubled in his chosen field. The world record for eating hot dogs with buns was 25 1/8 in 12 minutes. That may seem impossible, but in 2001, with a creative method of dipping the bun in water, Kobayashi doubled the record to 50. Later, many hot dog eating methods were improved, and now Joey Chestnut has the world record at 75 dogs in 10 minutes. These people were really on a Poogi, focused on all the tiny details that would allow them to eat hot dogs just a little bit faster. In the last 20 years, the hot dog eating record has more than tripled.
We can learn something from these competitive champions. I doubt any education program for children with autism can claim that their performance has tripled over the last 20 years. We might argue that it is because it is so much harder to measure quality. No doubt that is partially true. But I don’t think that is the real reason we don’t often see these types of dramatic improvements.
The real reason is that most of us don’t believe improvement at that level is possible, and are thus not really trying. I feel lucky because I know that dramatic improvement is indeed possible. I’ve seen it not just once, but twice. Now, no one is likely to claim their program is perfect. When asked, they’ll admit that there is room for improvement. But usually, they mean on the margins; we could do a little better on a small point here or there.
There is real value in the assumption that no matter how good you are, there is room for dramatic improvement. If you don’t assume dramatic improvements are possible, you are unlikely to look for it. Of course, we might be wrong in this assumption. You might be so good that dramatic improvement is impossible. But I doubt it.