10,000 hours.

I am reading Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book “Outliers”. I was a big fan of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point” and I have to say his new book doesn’t disappoint. Although a lot of stuff he talks about follows various types of fallacies in their presentation, the main point itself paints a valid picture of what it takes to be successful. His main argument in the book is that successful people who are proclaimed “self made” owe a lot to their environment and people who helped them along the way. He argues that it takes more than brilliance and genius to become successful. How you were raised, the culture you grew up in and the people you interact with have a much underrated affect on your level of success.

What I found most interesting was what he called “the 10,000 hours” rule. Gladwell argues people like Michael Jordan, The Beatles, Bill Gates, Michael Phelps and Mozart, who are known to be brilliant, have put in at least 10,000 hours of work before they actually became what they are. He argues that no one has ever been able to reach that level of success in one skill without putting in at least 10,000 hours. How long is 10,000 hours? If you were to put in three hours of practice in to playing basketball every day, it would take you just over 9 years to clear 10,000 hours. If you were to start playing the guitar today and not stop until you’ve done 10,000 hours, it would take you almost one year and two months to clear that. That is if you were to practice 24 hours a day seven days a week, non-stop.

What I thought was interesting is how quickly we stamp people as genius and assume they’re gifted with a talent where in fact the difference is only 10,000 hours. I haven’t finished reading the book yet; it’s a fun piece of work and needs to be read with an open mind. Some of the stuff he says leaves a lot of room for argument. He tends to make scientific conclusion without being scientific in his premise. But the book flows nicely and keeps you interested throughout.