10,000 hours always seems to me like the minimum groundwork specifically for people wanting to make significant contributions in well-trod fields, like classical music, or physics, or tennis.

I think there’s also a lot to be said for people who spend 1,000 hours (or less) doing something new or risky.

I’m thinking of a specific example, though sadly I’ve forgotten all the relevant details. It was something I saw in a documentary about the early days of hip-hop, I think, and they were talking to someone who was a pretty important guy really early on in terms of redefining what sort of music you could make with a turntable, before people really thought of a turntable as something you make music with.

He said something like “I’d come home every day, and just practice, for two, sometimes three hours. And I thought, before I really showed myself, I wanted to know I was the best. So I practiced every day for a *year*, and when I came out, I really blew people away”.

I remember seeing that and thinking: if you practiced the violin for 2 hours a day for a year, when it was over, you’d barely even qualify as a beginner. But this guy had the courage/vision/craziness to invest that sort of time not is something old and proven like playing the violin, but something new and risky, like trying to make music with a record player. And so he ends up as a person who makes significant contribution in the history of a really important musical form.

I have a lot of respect for the 10.000 hour guys, but I think there’s also genius to be found in the people who make wagers of smaller number of hours on longer odds. (And it seems to be the internet is full of that kind of genius – People who try something crazy and new that turns out to be great…)

I think there needs to be a distinction made, that 10,000 hours of anything (assuming Gladwell is correct) isn't going to push anyone to the top, or make anyone an expert in anything. I think it requires mindful practice, and a desire to learn and improve that makes the difference – not just the act of doing for a long period of time. I can blog for 10,000 hours, but if I take no interest in the “craft”, I will not necessarily improve simply by virtue of the fact that I am blogging. I would venture a guess that those bloggers out there who are mindful about their craft are fewer in number. That said, I'm not all pessimism and gloom. Blogging presents a tremendous low-to-no-cost opportunity for anyone to enter the world of writing, should it interest them, and develop their skills. (I do think it's safe to say that this is implicit in your post, but I hate to assume, and think it is an important distinction that should be explicit…)

Tariq

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