Writing Habit Mastery - How to Write 2,000 Words a Day and Fo... by S.J. Scott

Gladwell doesn’t differentiate between types of practice, even though it’s a really important distinction. And this is the first flaw of the 10,000 Hour Rule: It focuses on the quantity of time practicing, not the quality of the practice – and not all practice is equally helpful. If you wanted to get better at shooting a bow and arrow, would it be the same thing to experiment on your own for 3 hours as it would be to practice with an expert for 3 hours, who is giving you tips on form and technique and getting better? The answer is self-evident.

Since the 10,000 hour rule isn’t based on solid science, what do we know about practice and how to master a craft? A few things we know for sure are that not all learning or practice is equally helpful – and not everyone starts from the same place.ġ0,000 Hours of What? All Practice Isn’t Equal In fact, half of the best hadn’t put in 10,000 hours. On top of that, Gladwell misunderstood that 10,000 hours was an average, and not all the best violinists had put in this number by age 20. And even at 20, they were very good at playing the violin, and probably headed to the top of their field, but they were not yet experts. By the age of 18, they had put in an average of 7,400 hours. It’s the number of hours these promising violinists had put in by the time they were 20 years old. It’s catchy and easy to remember, but not really based on anything substantial. Pretty easy, right?īut upon closer examination, problems start to emerge.įirst of all, Ericsson says, the number 10,000 is totally arbitrary. Hence the 10,000 hour rule was born: put in your 10,000 hours of practice, and become an expert in a given field. Gladwell also estimates that the Beatles put in 10,000 hours of practice playing in Hamburg in the early 1960s, and that Bill Gates put in 10,000 hours of programming work before founding Microsoft. The study found that the most accomplished of the students had put in 10,000 hours by the time they turned 20. Gladwell uses several examples in Outliers when introducing this rule: one is the research done by Ericsson that focused on violin students at a music academy in Berlin. The 10,000 Hour Rule: Catchy and easy to remember, but on some pretty shaky scientific footing. Ericsson says the rule is an oversimplification, and in many ways, an incorrect interpretation of his research. And it was Ericsson’s research on expert musicians that Gladwell cites as a basis for the rule.

“A provocative generalization,” is what Anders Ericsson calls the 10,000 hour rule.

Writing Habit Mastery - How to Write 2,000 Words a Day and Fo... by S.J. Scott