Practice Makes Perfect with the 10000 Hour Rule

Here's the good news. If you want to become an expert in your field, be that art, sport
or business - you can. Contrary to popular belief, it's not always innate genius or talent that
will make you a success, it's the hours that you put in, which means that ANYONE can do it.

I first came across the 10000 hour rule or ten year rule a few years ago when I
read Learning from Wonderful Lives by Nick Baylis and immediately it made sense. I just
wish that I had discovered this when I was younger!

I've put this lens together to act as a comprehensive reference tool for anyone interested in
the 10000 Hour Rule. Hopefully it will help you to fulfill your dreams.

What Is the 10000 Hour Rule?

The 10000 Hour Rule is just that. This is the idea that
it takes approximately 10000 Hours of deliberate
practice to master a skill.

For instance, it would take 10 years of practicing 3

hours a day to become a master in your subject. It
would take approximately 5 years of full-time
employment to become proficient in your field. Simply
work out how many hours you have already achieved
and calculate how far you need to go. You should be
aiming for 10000 hours.
The Man Behind the 10000 Hour Rule
The 10000 Hour Rule is usually attributed to the research done by Anders Ericsson in the
early 1990s. He and his team divided students into three groups ranked by excellence at
the Berlin Academy of Music and then correlated achievement with hours of practice. They
discovered that the elite all had put in about 10000 hours of practice, the good 8000 and the
average 4000 hours. No one had fast-tracked. This rule was then applied to other
disciplines and Ericsson found that it proved valid.

Dr. K. Anders Ericsson is Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida
State University who is widely recognized as one of the world's leading theoretical and
experimental researchers on expertise. Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt (2006)
FREAKONOMICS. A Star Is Made New York Times, May 7, 2006
He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, a
volume released in 2006 .
Dr. Ericsson's research with Herbert Simon on verbal reports of thinking is summarized in a
book Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data, which was revised in 1993. With Bill Chase
he developed the Theory of Skilled Memory based on detailed analyses of acquired
exceptional memory performance (Chase, W. G., & Ericsson, K. A. (1982). Skill and
working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, (Vol.
16). New York: Academic Press). With Walter Kintsch he extended this theory into long-
term memory to account also for the superior working memory of expert performers and
memory experts
Currently he studies the cognitive structure of expert performance in domains such as
music, chess and sports, and how expert performers acquire their superior performance by
extended deliberate practice. He published an edited book with Jacqui Smith Toward a
General Theory of Expertise in 1991 and edited a book The Road to Excellence: The
Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports and Games that
appeared in 1996 as well as a collection edited with Janet Starkes Expert Performance in
Sports: Recent Advances in Research on Sport Expertise in 2003.
He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Links that Discuss the 10000 Hour Rule

Expert Performance and Deliberate Practice
An updated excerpt from Ericsson (2000). Some notes on the original research.
Secrets of Greatness - CNN
What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett the
world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a
gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired
at birth to all
Outstanding Performers: Created, Not Born?
NEW RESULTS ON NATURE VS. NURTURE BY DAVID R. SHANKS from Science Spectra,
1999, Number 18.Outstanding levels of performance in areas such as memory, chess,sports or
music are commonly ascribed to innate talent. Dr. David Shanks of University College, London
The Guardian Newspaper - Outliers
In an extract from Outliers: The Story Of Success, Malcolm Gladwell questions the idea of natural
genius
Gladwell.com
Link to the Outliers excerpt on Gladwell.com

The Man Who Has Made the 10000 Hour Rule

Famous
Malcolm Gladwell is the man who has brought new attention to the 10000 Hour Rule in his
new book Outliers: The Story of Success.
Malcolm Gladwell (born September 3, 1963) is a writer for The New Yorker and best-
selling author based in New York City. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since
1996. He is best known for his books The Tipping Point (2000), Blink (2005), Outliers
(2008), andCategory: What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures - (2009).
read the rest of the Wikipedia article

The 10000 Hour Rule - where do I find out more?

Outliers: The Story of Success

by: Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell's latest release has sparked off a lot of interest and debate about the 10000 hour rule.
This is a great starting point and reveals many surprising examples of the rule at work.
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Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody
Else
by: Geoff Colvin
A slightly different perspective from Gladwell's, but along the same lines.
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Learning from Wonderful Lives: Lessons from the Study of Well-being Brought to
Life by the Personal Stories of Some Much Admired Individuals
by: Nick Baylis
This is a fantastic reference book for anyone interested in the art of success and wellbeing. Pricey, but
worth it and with a chapter on the 10000 hour rule.
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Squidoo Hour Poll

How many hours have you put into Squidoo?

10000 hours - Elite Squid

5000-8000 hours - Master Squid

1000-5000 hours - Proficient Squid

250-1000 hours - Squid Competent

Less than 250 Hours - Squid Starter