The 10,000 Hour Rule Imagine hearing that if you did something over and over again for 10,000 hours, then you would instantly become an expert regardless of personal talent, therefore saying that success coincides with hard work every time. This is basically the argument Malcolm Gladwell gives in the book, Outliers. In contrast to this is the point stated by the article. That talent plus hard work, equals success. I agree with this point for many reasons. Many people, however, agree with Gladwell’s views. They think that working at something repeatedly and putting hard work into it, will make you good at it. Gladwell backs this point up very well, providing details from the lives of some of the most influential people to live. He shows how all of these people put in their 10,000 hours. For The Beatles, it was Hamburg, for Bill Joy it was the University of Michigan's Computer Center. Gladwell also talks about the pianists, saying that what set apart the world class performers from the future teachers, was not the level of skill, but the amount each group practiced a day since childhood. He says there were none who were talented and effortlessly floated to the top, he also says that there were no “grinds”, or people who worked really hard and couldn’t succeed. This is true for the examples that he used, but that is only one side of the story. One example would be that of genetics. For instance, if a midget who was born 3’ 6 practiced basketball for 10,000 hours, then he still wouldn't be able to play in the NBA. No matter how hard he tried or how much experience he ended up having, there are many environments where no matter how prepared you are, you would still be at a disadvantage. You cannot control all of the factors in the equation of life and just say “practice makes perfect!”. A strong point given by the article was that of the success formula. This formula is TALENT + HARD WORK= SUCCESS. It showed that in many interpretations of the 10,000 hour rule, people went as far to simply say, HARD WORK= SUCCESS. To say this is a gross oversimplification, even
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It was that if you have no talent whatsoever at something then it is almost impossible to work hard at it for a long period of time. If a person was a horrible athlete but like to play sports on the side, then would they spend 10,000 hours on it to be successful saying, “I like to swim, to play soccer, to jog, and to play football. So I will try to become a professional at one of these.” The article gives a perfect example of this, “ I was hopeless. My brain simply doesn’t work in a way that allows me to write code. So saying that if I’d spent ten thousand hours talking to Rax, I would be a successful computer programmer, because anyone can be a successful computer programmer, is crazy.” This perfectly sums up the point. He had plenty of interest; therefore, why would he waste years working on something that he has no skill at. So, all in all, I agree with the article. Talent + Hard Work does equal success. But on another level, hard work and no talent, simply does not appear to be a factor in successful people. To be successful, it takes talent, hard work, environment, and more. Therefore you cannot make it solely by following the rule of 10,000
It was that if you have no talent whatsoever at something then it is almost impossible to work hard at it for a long period of time. If a person was a horrible athlete but like to play sports on the side, then would they spend 10,000 hours on it to be successful saying, “I like to swim, to play soccer, to jog, and to play football. So I will try to become a professional at one of these.” The article gives a perfect example of this, “ I was hopeless. My brain simply doesn’t work in a way that allows me to write code. So saying that if I’d spent ten thousand hours talking to Rax, I would be a successful computer programmer, because anyone can be a successful computer programmer, is crazy.” This perfectly sums up the point. He had plenty of interest; therefore, why would he waste years working on something that he has no skill at. So, all in all, I agree with the article. Talent + Hard Work does equal success. But on another level, hard work and no talent, simply does not appear to be a factor in successful people. To be successful, it takes talent, hard work, environment, and more. Therefore you cannot make it solely by following the rule of 10,000