The 10k figure is a nice rule of thumb, but it's not very informative if you're counting them. "10 years to an expert" is also a good rule of thumb (which comes

The 10k figure is a nice rule of thumb, but it's not very informative if you're counting them. "10 years to an expert" is also a good rule of thumb (which comes to 10k hours, for 3 hours a day), but it's also uninformative to count years. For the average person who diligently hacks away, 10 years seems about right. But some people are ferociously quick at improving and that's just how they are.