Only another 9,500 hours to go!
Scientists claim that to reach the top of your chosen discipline, you need to practice for 10,000 hours.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1088735/You-genius-spare-10-000-hours.html
Over the last 5 years I’ve probably managed somewhere in the region of 500 hours study and play (most of which has been in the last couple of years), leaving me with another 9,500 hours, and at the current rate, 95 years before I reach the pinnacle of chess.
It’s not going to happen, is it?
Sunday, November 30th 2008 at 7:14 pm
I have even further to go, in that case ! but I doubt if that will stop me… If I’m honest I will never reach the top ( or even near it ) in chess, but there again, its not my “chosen discipline”, in that it doesn’t provide me with a living.
However, I do enjoy chess the more I understand what I am doing, so that must be my goal : understanding, rather than just rating points !
Monday, July 6th 2009 at 9:21 am
It is a common misunderstand of the hpothesis that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill/field/endeavour that the 10,000 hours is cumulaticve time spent in the activity. It is not.
It takes 10,000 hours of directed practice. Directed practice here is a technical term that means practice or study with a clearly defined goal, objective criteria to know if and when the goal is achieved, controlled repetitions to re-inforce the learning and so on.
Time spent playing or reading generally, but an an un-focussed way, may be enjoyable, and does lead to improvement, but nowhere near so efficiently as “directed practice” It cannot count towards the 10,000 hours.
There is another flaw. The studies on which this is based show that those people that attained a high level of performance (e.g. above grade 8 on a musical instrument, a 2300 Elo rating etc.) took, on average 10,000 hours of directed practice to get there.
What the studies ignore are those people that put in the same 10,000 hours but did not reach that level of performance.
So the 10,000 hours may be a NECESSARY condition (no-one- however talented, reaches those levels without doing the work) but it is not SUFFICIENT (you could do the work and still not reach the standard). We still do not know exactly what else you have to bring with you in the form of genetically endowed talent, motivation, and love of the subject.
Sunday, August 30th 2009 at 8:48 am
I don’t think anyone is disputing that we are talking about structured practice/study/analysis.