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from the he'll-never-make-it-to-Carnegie-Hall dept.
The Atlantic has an article on Dan McLaughlin, the "average guy" who spent six thousand hours working on becoming a professional golfer
Seven-plus years ago, aged 30 and unsure even of which hand to grip a golf club in, McLaughlin quit his job as a commercial photographer, took in lodgers to cover the mortgage, husbanded his savings for green fees, and set out to make the PGA Tour, home to the world's elite golfers.
He created a catchily named blog to document his quest, and in short order the Dan Plan commanded magazines spreads and TV spots. Along the way, it drew an avid community of followers riveted by the spectacle of a regular Joe living out an everyman fantasy. No less captivated: a salon of leading figures from the science of learning and human performance.
What could you achieve if you committed to something completely, all-in, no excuses? How far could you go? For five years, McLaughlin cast everything else aside—career, money, even relationships—to put this to the test. But then his back gave out. He pushed himself to the limit and still came up short.
The article follows Dan's attempt to follow the idea, popularised in Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, that 10,000 hours of practice is the main factor in developing any skill to world class expertise.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Monday August 14 2017, @04:54PM (1 child)
If the skill were inherently useful, then the top 6% might qualify. As it's celebrity-driven reward, I'm not sure even the top 1% would qualify. You probably need to be at least in the top 50, or, to be generous, the top 100.
OTOH, does *he* think he succeeded? Given the kind of thing he's doing, then that's the only real criterion. (The headline said failed, and after reading the summary I didn't bother reading the article, so I'm guessing not.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @10:40PM
That would depend on how many of the 6% better than him also put in 10k hours. If all of them also have putt in that much dedication, then the difference between top 6% and top 100 is noise.