MattHaupt

I have been loving the exposure Malcolm Gladwell is getting of his new book, Outliers.

If you haven’t read it yet, or his other two fantastic books, The Tipping Point and Blink, then start reading! It has something for everyone!

Sorry, enough of that. Anyways…

I just recently read a post by Seth Godin talking a little bit about the argument in Outliers that says you can become an expert of just about anything with  about 10,000 hours or more of practice. Seth also talked a little bit about his book “The Dip”, and how closely related these theories are (with a few differences).

In Outliers, Gladwell goes through a couple different examples in a chapter of his book (The 10,000 Hour Rule) naming people like Mozart, The Beatles, and Bill Gates; each, arguably, experts in their field; each practicing their trade for more than 10,000 hours.

Seth makes a good point in his blog post, 10,000 hours, on how there are plenty of examples in our lives where people seem to be superstars that have not met this 10,000 hour criteria (he speaks of Miley Cyrus, if you call that talent, and The Doors).

Seth believes:

You win when you become the best in the world, however ‘best’ and ‘world’ are defined by your market. In many mature markets, it takes 10,000 hours of preparation to win because most people give up after 5,000 hours. That’s the only magic thing about 10k… it’s a hard number to reach, so most people bail.

I believe, Seth is somewhat simplifying the reasoning behind the 10,000 hour rule. Miley Cyrus is a hit, but would anybody say she is the greatest singer of all time? Is she the greatest singer of the moment? She might be a favorite among teenagers and other youngins, but does that make her an expert singer?

The Doors of course didn’t log 10,000 hours of rehearsing together before creating their new sound, but the members have most likely logged over 10,000 hours practicing their instruments and/or writing their music, before creating the music that made them so popular among fans.

What about people who practice 10,000 hours and are still terrible? Well to be honest, I don’t think they truely practiced. You can go through the motions, going through the same elements of your field over and over again, but are you improving yourself? Are you trying to learn more about your craft? If not, you are not practicing.

As for being the best is defined by your market. It is an intriguing thought, but it is somewhat limiting. The point about 10,000 hours is not just because you are logging more hours of practice than most people would even attempt; it is that your body and mind only begins to develop true mastery of these skills after a certain amount of hours of practice.

Neurologist believe, 10,000.

Now could you become the ”expert” in newly formed field just after a few months because you have ”out practiced” everyone else? Sure! Will you truely be a master of this field? Probably not.

Why? Because there is still, most likely, so much for you to learn.

If you agree or not, one thing you should take away from this is that their are a bunch of reasons why someone becomes successful. Some of it is luck, some of it is opportunities, some of it is mentors, and some of it is practice. The thing you have most control over is PRACTICE!

Think you can just float to the top without trying? Think again. Because according to Gladwell….arbitrary things, such as the year you were born, might have more of a detrimental effect on your success than you think.

Question:(Dwight Schrute-like) Has anyone read The Outliers and Seth Godin’s “The Dip”? Do they have a lot of similar themes? What did you take away from both of them?