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The book doesn't simply say that practicing something for 10,000 hours will make you a master. The point is that people who are masters at something (or known a
by jartelt 7y ago
The book doesn't simply say that practicing something for 10,000 hours will make you a master. The point is that people who are masters at something (or known as brilliant or experts in their field) didn't just magically get to that point by having a particular talent. They got there by having a particular talent, being born into particular circumstances, AND THEN putting in a ton of work (hence the 10,000 hour reference).
Bill Gates wasn't born a great programmer and businessman. He was born smart and into a situation where he had access to a computer and then he worked his butt off to learn. Similarly, great athletes are both talented and work like crazy to hone their craft.
The point I took from the book is that hard work and many, many hours of study and/or practice is essential in order to get to the top of a field. Doing the hard work will not automatically get you to the top since at some point lack of talent or lack of resources may get in the way. But, you need to do the hard work in order to give yourself a chance to make it to the top.
- zantana 7y agoI agree. The whole point of the book was that there were outliers which gave people certain edges which made their success more likely than one would think. The examples I recall were hockey players who were born at certain times so during their formative years they were essentially a year older than the other players which gave them a leg up during their formative years making them better candidates to succeed later on. Looking around that appears to be equally controversial. While I often don't agree with Gladwell's conclusions I do think he, as well as Michal Lewis, bring enough new information and insights that they are worth reading.