Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers theorizes that in order to master something, you have to log 10,000 hours in that activity. He uses a variety of examples to prove that there is always a general range of time required to be the best in any area.
On first impression, 10,000 hours doesn’t seem like that much. After you think about it for more than ten seconds, however, you begin to see how daunting of a task it can be. If you think about anything you consider yourself “proficient” or “very good” at, estimate how many hours you have in that activity. It can be a related activity as well. For example, if I were to claim I was good at drawing funny graphs, I would not only count the time drawing the graphs, but also the time spent making graphs in school, as well as time drawing in general. In most cases, unless (even if) you are a professional, you don’t fall anywhere near the 10,000 hour mark.
I have a theory about how people develop in their activity over the span of 10,000 hours. Note that none of this is based off of any scientific data, and I probably have no idea what I am saying.
0-10 hours: Just beginning, building interest, and exploring basic strategies.
10-100 hours: Becoming proficient. At the end of the 100 hours, you are most likely better than the vast majority of people.
100-500 hours: Learning and in-depth analysis. At this phase, you have mastered the basics.
500-1000 hours: Serious business phase. You are now good enough that you have to really be engaged to continue improving.
1000-3000 hours: Waning development phase. There is significant improvement during this time, but it comes very slowly. You may even decrease in skill level for short periods of time (10-100 hours), but eventually improve in the end.
3000-6000 hours: Grinding. Pure exposure to a multitude of situations. “Expert” level.
6000-10000 hours: Mastery. Everything is down to a science. New experiences become very rare. No outside instruction is any longer of much benefit.
10000+ hours: Payoff phase. As one of the best in the world, you are legendary in that field.
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