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"People say it takes 10′000 hours of practice to become an expert in something. That’s roughly ten years." Assuming you work twenty hours a week, which is an a

"People say it takes 10′000 hours of practice to become an expert in something. That’s roughly ten years." Assuming you work twenty hours a week, which is an assumption he should explicitly state, rather than stealing it (uncited) from Malcolm Gladwell.

erikstarck 17y ago
Well, I did link to a blog post with more info about the 10'000 hours, including a reference to Gladwell. EDIT: edited the OP, added explicit reference to Gladwell. Thanks for pointing that out.
mattm 17y ago
Of course Gladwell "stole" it from other people before him. It's not a new idea.
- erikstarck 17y ago
  Yeah, I have a faint memory of reading about that before Gladwell came out with his book (which I haven't read). Anyway, putting a number on expertise is purely an academic exercise. The important thing is that it clearly will take a huge effort and "talent" is only a small part of it. The rest is inspiration and transpiration.
jessriedel 17y ago
This idea is really more of a tautology. It takes of-order 10 years time to become an expert at something because this is of-order a human lifetime. There is no objective "Expert" level. "Experts" are just the people who have spent the most time at something (modulo effort and intrinsic skill). Since (1) you can't spend much more than 50 years on something and (2) there are always diminishing returns for time invested, 10 years will get you 90% of the maximum possible skill at almost any pursuit. The exceptions are, of course, those areas where there are aren't strong diminishing returns (rare...maybe memorization?) or where there is a ceiling on skill (e.g. tic-tac-toe). In those cases, expertise comes with more and less time, respectively.
rdmcfee 17y ago
If I'm not mistaken, Gladwell uses the term "Expert" when referring to specific skills. I like to think of Entrepreneurship as a conglomerate of opportunity and many skills. Perhaps if a startup was solely dependent on a single(ish) skill like Web Application Development then this would be more applicable but that's obviously not the case. I agree with persistence but it seems to me that versatility, self awareness and team Chemistry would be more beneficial that attempting to "become an expert"

erikstarck 17y ago

Well, I did link to a blog post with more info about the 10'000 hours, including a reference to Gladwell. EDIT: edited the OP, added explicit reference to Gladwell. Thanks for pointing that out.

mattm 17y ago

Of course Gladwell "stole" it from other people before him. It's not a new idea.

erikstarck 17y ago
Yeah, I have a faint memory of reading about that before Gladwell came out with his book (which I haven't read). Anyway, putting a number on expertise is purely an academic exercise. The important thing is that it clearly will take a huge effort and "talent" is only a small part of it. The rest is inspiration and transpiration.

jessriedel 17y ago

This idea is really more of a tautology. It takes of-order 10 years time to become an expert at something because this is of-order a human lifetime. There is no objective "Expert" level. "Experts" are just the people who have spent the most time at something (modulo effort and intrinsic skill). Since (1) you can't spend much more than 50 years on something and (2) there are always diminishing returns for time invested, 10 years will get you 90% of the maximum possible skill at almost any pursuit. The exceptions are, of course, those areas where there are aren't strong diminishing returns (rare...maybe memorization?) or where there is a ceiling on skill (e.g. tic-tac-toe). In those cases, expertise comes with more and less time, respectively.

rdmcfee 17y ago

If I'm not mistaken, Gladwell uses the term "Expert" when referring to specific skills. I like to think of Entrepreneurship as a conglomerate of opportunity and many skills. Perhaps if a startup was solely dependent on a single(ish) skill like Web Application Development then this would be more applicable but that's obviously not the case. I agree with persistence but it seems to me that versatility, self awareness and team Chemistry would be more beneficial that attempting to "become an expert"