Can you become an expert with 10,000 hours of practice?

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Bozo

Not necessarily so.

My background is a profession that is most usually measured by hours of experience, where it is assumed that Joe, with 12,321 hours is better than Sam with only 458 hours.

I've seen Joe make the same mistake over and over again, and he's past being corrected, especially by Sam who he considers a newby.

If you learn something wrong, and then practice it for 10,000 hours, it's still gonna be wrong and you're no expert.

Hi Bozo,

I think I remember reading somewhere that "how" you practice is also very important... I can't remember where I read it - it was probably in an article somewhere. (I haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's book, though it may be in there...)

To my understanding, you have to practice by pushing your boundaries, to constantly push what you can do.

For example, let's say I want to get good at shooting baskets in basketball. Let's say I always stand in the same spot, and shoot baskets. I could get quite good at shooting baskets from that one spot.

Now, even once I'm good at that, I could keep doing that. However, I'll get much better if I push my boundaries... For example, I could start practicing shooting from different spots on the court. I could start practicing shooting while I'm moving, rather than only when I'm stationary. Or shooting baskets with both the right and left hands, rather than with just one "dominant" hand. And so on.

I don't know enough about the situation you talk about, but I can imagine a person who does something wrong, then does it wrong again, and again, and again. That person clearly is only doing things one way, and seems not to be trying new or different things.... Kind of like staying in a "comfort zone," rather than pushing his or her boundaries.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the issue...

I'll see if I can find this mentioned somewhere...

Best wishes,

Dien