Okay, so I've been meaning to get this off my chest -- I'm a bit peeved by the fad of deriding Gladwell for a panoply of accounts. All of a sudden it seems that

Okay, so I've been meaning to get this off my chest -- I'm a bit peeved by the fad of deriding Gladwell for a panoply of accounts. All of a sudden it seems that everybody's hopping on the cool wagon where the new thing is scorning Malcolm Gladwell. The 10,000 hours model is rather loosely made in the Outliers book. He does not say '10,000 hours exactly' will give you worldclass skill in area x -- he says roughly 10,000 hours, with expert instruction, constantly pushing the boundaries, etc. will get you mastery. Just like Norvig does not say 10 years exactly will make you a worldclass programmer. [1] It's said in loose terms. Basically, it's just a more marketable and fun way of saying 'Practice makes perfect' -- and I applaud both Gladwell and Norvig for once again saying it again and inspiring people to really work hard at whatever they want to be good at. [1] http://norvig.com/21-days.html http://norvig.com/21-days.html