> That anyone, given enough determination, can become good at any skill. That "given enough determination" part is glossed over a bit too easily. Plus, even if

> That anyone, given enough determination, can become good at any skill. That "given enough determination" part is glossed over a bit too easily. Plus, even if it's just an approximation, people radically underestimate how much 10k hours of practice is. I've learned a wide range of skills throughout my life so far, to various levels of proficiency. One or two things I've been able to achieve what I feel most others would considers an expert level, and have learned a very large number of things ranging from beginner to intermediate. Anecdotally the confirmation I've found about 10,000 hours is that my area of expertise is something that for years I thought I was naturally bad at. But I got tremendously interested in it, and began studying and practice literally every day for years, and to this day continue to practice and study this area. As far as beginner/intermediate skills, two typically talent based things I've been able to teach myself are life drawing and juggling. I have awful hand eye coordination, and still learned enough juggling to impress people at parties when the occasion comes up. My hand writing is illegible, I also have awful fine motor skills and I've still been able to create surprisingly realistic sketches. Of course I'll never be an expert at these things because I'm just not interested enough in them to get anywhere near the 10,000 hour mark. Four ball juggling will likely remain my threshold indefinitely. The number of things I've gained proficiency in that I had a prior belief and initial experience that they were impossible for me to do is just to high for me to throw out the wisdom of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice might be hard to define, but at the very least it means "practice that is not easy". In order to do something every day with a reasonably high frustration/failure rate means that you have to have an incredible drive to continue. Most people I've known simply can't endure finishing a day of work to go sit down and struggle with something for 1/2 hour a day. If you want 10k hours you have to do this without cessation, and no end in sight. In my experience no amount of will power can force this to happen either. You can force yourself past the beginner and into the intermediate stage, but expertise can only come from an insatiable drive. It's also important to realize that expert and world famous are not the same thing. There are many true experts in guitar who are unknown, 10k hours doesn't get you to being John Frusciante.