I always get mixed feelings when I see a picture of something that is proclaimed to be amazing because of its inefficient construction. “Wow, look at this life-sized moose statue, made completely from toothpicks!” It’s an accomplishment because of the time and patience necessary, but there are much better ways to build a moose statue.
It’s like origami – sure it’s cool that you can make things purely by folding, but I bet I could do it a lot quicker with scissors and some tape.
Although it may seem too late to get 10,000 hours into any one activity, it probably is not. In an entire lifetime, if you are extremely motivated and have very little restrictions, you could become a master in about seven different areas.
The most important thing about practice is that it should be enjoyable. In order to succeed at anything, it has to be something you actually want to do. Practice shouldn’t be a chore. It should be a fun way to improve at something genuinely of interest.
One final note. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if you have 10,000 hours or are a master of anything at all. The more important thing is simply doing, creating, or starting something. You won’t be good at anything unless you start out bad at it.
(One exception of note would be this blog. I don’t know about you, but I think I exploded onto the scene with that idea about apples.)
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.
“Practice makes perfect.” Of course we know this – our parents, teachers, and friends have told us this throughout our lives. We understand that in order to be a great piano player or athlete you have to have a lot of practice. However, in many cases, it is easy to fall into the belief that there is an exact methodology to being the best at something.
Let’s use the example of free throws in basketball. Because of official basketball regulations, the distance between the player and the hoop, the height of the hoop, and the size of the ball are always constant. Therefore, it would be easy to assume that there is a method to always make free throws. All you would have to do is have an expert explain the mechanics, and you should be able to have a perfect free throw percentage, right? Surely, there must be a way to throw the ball with the correct speed, height, and arc to make it in every time. Unfortunately this is not the case, and to have a perfect free throw percentage, you need a lot of practice. After a certain skill level, no more instruction is beneficial, and you have to experience the many outcomes of a free throw to master it.
Over the next four days I am going to write a mini-series about practice. There are a a variety of topics to cover, so splitting it up makes the most sense.
The general idea behind practicing is that you are exposed to nearly every possible situation. Through massive numbers of trials and errors, you learn the best course of action in every circumstance. In addition, you build up muscles memory. Whether it is the arm motion in bowling a bowling ball or the hand movements of painting, you can develop a “feel” for your activity.
In general, people want to achieve great things, and the most surefire way to do so is practice.
Road salt is amazing and beautiful. It is simple, cheap, available, and works well. Not only does it lower the effective temperature at which snow melts, but it also provides a rough texture to the road to avoid slippage.
I guess there isn’t really much point in showing my appreciation of road salt, but if you came here looking for any more substantial content you were terribly mistaken.
Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs 