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Comment by IgorPartola | Hacker News Reader

While Gladwell makes a compelling argument for the 10,000 hour rule, I just can't buy that. It can't be that simple.

Simple? It's not like you're sit around eating snacks and thinking about a topic for 10,000 hours - that's 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, which is hard work.

Two people can play 10,000 hours of golf, and one of them becomes Tiger Woods, and the other one becomes a course pro teaching lessons for $45/hr. Tiger Woods was amazing at age 5 on "That's Incredible," long before his 10,000 hours.

Similarly it's obvious that Steve Jobs is expert at what he does, but what is that, exactly? What did he practice for 10,000 hours?

Talent, expert level preparation, and success are related but the interaction between them is still mysterious.

It's not just playing 10000 hours of golf, it's actively and effectively practicing golf for 10000 hours. There is huge difference between the two. Sure innate talent and physical attributes make a difference, but exactly how you spend your 10000 hours probably makes a much bigger difference.

I couldn't agree more. To add slightly, I think the intensity and novelty of what you are doing are probably the biggest factors in how you spend your 10000 hours.

I know I learn more from spending 1 hour trying to solve a new problem I have never tackled before than spending 10 writing yet another CRUD procedure or yeat another GUI for the database. Similarly, I improved my running faster (back when I was still running regularly) with runs that challenged me and on varied terrain more than I did from yet another tread mill run at a regular pace.

"Simple" is not the same thing as "easy."

But I think the point the poster is trying to make is that it isn't simple. The actual task of carrying out 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is complicated. You have to be constantly revising your strategy, measuring your progress, determining what, when and how to practice, and the actual tasks that comprise the practice may be complicated (as the poster said - you can't sit there eating snacks).

Simple, but easier said then done.

Or maybe - Simple, but complicated to do.

Someone could ask me "How do I make the perfect search engine?"

and I might reply "For any user and query make it return the most relevant results."

That is a simple instruction but actually complicated to do.

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