10,000 hours concept

[zilya]

Malcolm Gladwell on NPR today... talking about the research that indicates the amount of time people generally need to get really good at something, be it basketball, computer programming, or being a doctor or music composer: about 10,000 hours of doing it, or roughly 10 years.

I always kinda said, if there's something you really love to do, you'll do it a lot, make a study of it, and eventually get good at it. (modulo some egregious differences in aptitude and physical ability)

Comments

[noire.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! Thank you for that!

[tcb.livejournal.com]

That seems pretty accurate. It also reminds me of something my Drivers Ed teacher told us, that we couldn't begin to say we were experienced until we'd driven 10,000 miles.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

Or what Jacob told me, which is "attempt 1000 handstands and you'll eventually get it"

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

I really love Gladwell, and as usual he sounds right to me: I started teaching high school English 10 years ago, and I feel like I'm just now hitting my true stride.

It's been totally worth it, incidentally.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

I'm glad. Sounds like you're really good at it, too!

[goat.livejournal.com]

Wow! I think that requires a larger attention span than I have! Even belly dance, my longest adult love, I've only done on and off, though it has been 13 years now I'm not nearly as good as my friends who've only been dancing 5 years but doing it every day. Since they're probably closer to 10,000 hours than I am, I guess that just proves the theory. :)

the drive for learning

[capybaron.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I had been told something similar by a drivers education teacher, though the time/distance was 1000 hours/50,000 miles. While the behind-the-wheel part of the class was quite eventful (my class was in midtown Manhattan), the total amount of class time was only a small fraction of the recommended kilohour.

Gladwell seems to be getting a lot of press lately (I have only read "Blink"). Is he promoting a new book?