I'm pretty sure that Malcolm Gladwell clarified his position on the 10,000 hour rule during Tim Ferris' podcast [0]. He was saying that the 10,000 hour rule was

I'm pretty sure that Malcolm Gladwell clarified his position on the 10,000 hour rule during Tim Ferris' podcast [0]. He was saying that the 10,000 hour rule was meant to clearly indicate that becoming successful requires a large support system. Which seems to make it easier to understand why kids who start really early can become successful: they don't have to worry about all the things adults have to. Conversely, it explains a little bit why being an adult makes it harder to become world-class at something. [0] http://tim.blog/2016/06/21/malcolm-gladwell/ http://tim.blog/2016/06/21/malcolm-gladwell/