Saturday, January 7, 2012

10, 000 Hour Rule for Writers


Malcolm Gladwell is the bestselling author of four books. The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw, have sold over five million copies. My favorite book is The Outliers:The Story of Success. In Outliers, Gladwell discusses the 10,000 Hour Rule.The 10,000 Hour Rule is from the work of researchers K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Cleens Tesch-Romer. "Ericsson and his colleagues compared amateur pianists with professional pianists. The amateurs never practiced more than about three hours a week over the course of their childhood...The professionals, on the other hand, steadily increased their practice time every year, until by the age of twenty, they had reached ten thousand hours." Gladwell purported that in order to be GREAT at anything it's going to take 10,000 hours of practice. Consider this rule when deciding how much time you devote to your art. If you practice writing  one hour a day, 365 days of the year, you will need about 28 years to become a great writer. If you devote two hours a day, for 365 days a year, you will need approximately fourteen years to be great. Greatness takes devotion as well as talent.

Pastiche 

3 comments:

  1. Interestingly, there are several sayings that identify increased practice as the key to being successful in any venture. While in times long ago there was not the realization of how greatness could be achieved in 10000 hours, there was an understanding of how "practice makes perfect" and "if at first you don't succeed try, try again". In our modern times where instant gratification and fame along with fortune are obtained in a few moments we have considerable work to do in helping our youth understand how true greatness is obtained. There is no instant path to be a master at your craft.

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  2. I agree.. Great article. I don't think perfection is attainable but practice sure helps in coming close. Love the blog too. :-)

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  3. iSo needed to read that. It's just difficult at times to keep the drive of staying committed to your discipline. Balance and order is imperative. Thanks for the reflection of wisdom.

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