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10k hours - the amount of time proposed that it takes to master a craft.

FrojoS 15y ago
How do you define mastery of a craft? Jobs e.g. certainly had put in >10k in developing and selling electronic devices when he founded NeXT. But I'd argue it took him a couple more years to become as good and successful as he is now. Another example is Johann Sebastian Bach. Many think, that his last work was his best.
- programminggeek 15y ago
  Mastery is a strange term. For example, most people would recognize that to be a professional athlete you must have mastered that sport. Yet, at the same time, within that professional level there are often a select few all-stars or champions that stand out amongst the field. So, Steve Jobs in charge during the Mac era vs Steve Jobs as CEO of Pixar vs Steve Jobs CEO of Next vs. Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple during the iMac/iPod/iPhone era is certainly different levels of mastery. At what point did Steve Jobs "master" the art of running a company? You can certainly look back a decade or more and see him doing much the same things then as he is now. Yet, he clearly is a more successful CEO now than 10 or 20 years ago. Perhaps mastery would be better defined as attaining a level of capability in all the required skills required of a particular job/skillset. Mastery is often the point of diminishing returns where you spend minimal time learning new skills and most of your time refining your skills and methods further.
  - bad_user 15y ago
    Yet, he clearly is a more successful CEO now than 10 or 20 years ago That's mostly because success is a strange beast with many variables, including luck and timing. If he's more successful than 10-20 years ago, that doesn't mean that 20 years ago he wasn't more capable than he is now. Also, if you measure success by how much money he makes, then Pixar was his biggest success, an investment that started in 1986 and ended in 2006 - paying serious dividends as Jobs became a major stockholder of Disney.

How do you define mastery of a craft? Jobs e.g. certainly had put in >10k in developing and selling electronic devices when he founded NeXT. But I'd argue it took him a couple more years to become as good and successful as he is now. Another example is Johann Sebastian Bach. Many think, that his last work was his best.

programminggeek 15y ago
Mastery is a strange term. For example, most people would recognize that to be a professional athlete you must have mastered that sport. Yet, at the same time, within that professional level there are often a select few all-stars or champions that stand out amongst the field. So, Steve Jobs in charge during the Mac era vs Steve Jobs as CEO of Pixar vs Steve Jobs CEO of Next vs. Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple during the iMac/iPod/iPhone era is certainly different levels of mastery. At what point did Steve Jobs "master" the art of running a company? You can certainly look back a decade or more and see him doing much the same things then as he is now. Yet, he clearly is a more successful CEO now than 10 or 20 years ago. Perhaps mastery would be better defined as attaining a level of capability in all the required skills required of a particular job/skillset. Mastery is often the point of diminishing returns where you spend minimal time learning new skills and most of your time refining your skills and methods further.
- bad_user 15y ago
  Yet, he clearly is a more successful CEO now than 10 or 20 years ago That's mostly because success is a strange beast with many variables, including luck and timing. If he's more successful than 10-20 years ago, that doesn't mean that 20 years ago he wasn't more capable than he is now. Also, if you measure success by how much money he makes, then Pixar was his biggest success, an investment that started in 1986 and ended in 2006 - paying serious dividends as Jobs became a major stockholder of Disney.