10,000-hour rule: real or fake?

#motivation #writing #books

This rule got famous within Malcolm Gladwell's research in the book "Outliers".📚

In the book, Gladwell talks a lot about this misconception in the belief that some people are born with an incredible talent, or are geniuses and because of that they are so-called "outliers", meaning that they stand out completely from the "normal" people. 🤔

He brings the idea that what actually made this people become outliers is actually the fact that they, for some reasons and circumstances, practised for this "the magic number of greatness" which is the 10,000 hours.

After doing a bit of research, I found out that many other researches have actually disagreed that this is the "magic" number of hours 👀 they say that there is not such a thing, that some people might need way less and others way much.

I really liked the book, and for me what the author wants to bring, the message that stayed with me, was that with discipline, diligence and hard work anyone can achieve anything that they want! That hard work pays off 🌟 (imo the actual amount of hours doesn't really matter 😂) P.s. ofc having in mind the inequality in our society and our privileges!

And you, what do you think? 💖

Top comments (18)

Michael • Feb 16 '22

Gladwell always brings up good points, but a lot of his critics get stuck on certain points. There is also some discussion on this online: howigotjob.com/articles/how-long-i...

Overall taking 10000 and divide by 8 that is about 1,250 days which gives about 4 years and that matches up to about a Bachelors degree, so hopefully you feel like you have mastered your subject by the time you graduated.

Shawn S • Feb 21 '22

Except two years are spent on useless Gen-Ed courses before you even start you major coursework. So, at worst, a CS major has two YoE; even that would be shrunk by the fact that those “YoE” are in B-S sandboxed arenas.

webbureaucrat • Feb 16 '22

Gladwell did an interview with Freakonomics on the criticisms of his book. I recommend digging it up if the subject interests you.

Basically, he argues that his critics focus too much on the "magic" number without reading it in the context of what constitutes deliberate, challenging practice.

Alice Borner • Feb 16 '22

oh that's really interesting to know, thanks so much for sharing! I will definitely have a look.

Mike Talbot ⭐ • Feb 16 '22

I think it's a good estimation of the time that it takes to achieve controlled mastery on average. It's always a guess, 10,000 hours on what? Programming? 3D programming? For-Next loops? :)

Alice Borner • Feb 16 '22

Oh makes sense, it might be relative to the person and to the subject as well! Well pointed :D

Tobias Haindl • Feb 18 '22

For a different perspective on this topic I can highly recommend Range by David L. Epstein.
In his book he argues that focusing on one skill too much might prevent you from finding your "real" talent.
Furthermore a broad range of skills can be benefical for mastering a single skill.
I found his arguments and comparisons really interesting and refreshing.

MikeVV • Feb 16 '22

I have read also a book with slightly opposite opinion - The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast by Josh Kaufman and there said that 20 hours is enough to lean something 🙂