Dealing With Stuff
  • Dealing With Stuff
  • About
  • Contact

What about… 1,000 hours?

10/1/2015

 
Picture
Malcolm Gladwell introduced a lot of people to the “10,000-Hour Rule,” based on research by Anders Ericsson.  The idea is that people who excel in any field from sports to music to business reach a world-class level after roughly 10,000 hours of practice.  Outliers was a best-seller.  I’m sure I’m not the only person who read it and became captivated by the idea that excellence comes from discipline, not just innate talent.

I put the book down and thought, “Okay, how long is 10,000 hours?”  It turned out to be not quite three years’ worth of 8-hour days.  Another way to break it down was 12 years of 2-hour practice sessions, which was much more manageable.  At my age this was not a problem.  Clearly I had the time to devote to reaching world-class performance at something.  But what?  That question sprang up of its own accord.  What would I want to be that good at?  Anything?

Nothing immediately cropped up except another question.  “What about… 1,000 hours?  Or… 100 hours?”  Surely 100 hours would be enough to make noticeable progress in something.  That would be a good start to test out the hypothesis.  When I thought of 100 hours, something did come to mind.  Cooking.  I was a newlywed, and my cooking skills were somewhere between ‘beginner’ and ‘sexist joke.’  I looked to my bookcase full of unused cookbooks and formulated a plan.
​
As it turned out, there was a huge improvement in my cooking in more like 10 hours.  I learned about mise en place and wondered how I ever managed without it.  As a novice, I would turn on the burner and try to prepare all the ingredients in the order they appeared, not always realizing I didn’t even have everything the recipe required until I was halfway in.  I started noticing patterns in recipes, such as which herbs and spices were added at the beginning and which aromatics went in last.  I started understanding how much cooking time differed for different vegetables.  By the time I hit 100 hours, I was beginning to be able to throw together a decent meal without using a recipe.  At 1,000 hours, I wrote my own little cookbook.

One criticism of the 10,000-Hour Rule is that hours are not enough.  Excellence takes focus on improving the weakest areas, competent coaching, and sometimes traits like height or age or finger span that can’t be gotten through time commitment.  We do want to keep in mind that it’s more important to accept critique than to stubbornly pound away at the same mistakes over and over.
It’s encouraging to realize that sometimes only a few evenings of dedicated effort may lie between us and a tantalizing new skill.  Being good at something is really satisfying.  We don’t necessarily have to worry about being ‘great’ when ‘good’ is good enough.  As it turns out, being willing to put in a few hours here and there can make a lot of interesting things much more accessible.


Comments are closed.
    New podcast!
    Clutter of the Day

    Author

    I've been working with chronic disorganization, squalor, and hoarding for over 20 years.  I'm also a marathon runner who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and thyroid disease 17 years ago.

    I have a BA in History.

    I live in Southern California with my husband and our pets, an African Gray parrot and a rat terrier.

    #Questioner
    #ENTP

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    ADHD
    Birdwatching
    Body Image
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Cleaning
    Clutter
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    COVID 19 Chronicles
    Fibromyalgia
    Filks
    Fitness
    Food
    Future Self
    Futurism
    Goals
    Habits
    Humor
    Languages
    Martial Arts
    Mindset
    Minimalism
    Money
    Motivation
    Movie Reviews
    Moving
    Organization
    Past Self
    Pets
    Preparedness
    Procrastination
    Public Speaking
    Quests
    Relationships
    Resolutions
    Running
    Sleep
    Technology
    The-woowoo
    The-woo-woo
    Thyroid Disease
    Timemanagement
    Time Management
    Tiny Houses
    Travel
    Weight
    Work
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Dealing With Stuff
  • About
  • Contact