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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: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @04:55PM (2 children)
There's also talent. Everything requires a certain combination of skills and you can't just develop them to the appropriate level just because you would like to - as a music teacher, I've had students work their asses off for years and never really get good, whilst others come in and all they really need is advice and a little discipline.
Even with that, you need a crapload of luck in such endeavours. Ask any one of the many incredible musicians who never turned a cent from their work.
This "10,000 hours" is stupid and cruel. I've noticed most people who dish out the "Just do what you love and it will all work out" are usually from wealthy, or at least well connected backgrounds, and have what it takes to "fake it till you make it".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by andersjm on Monday August 14 2017, @07:00PM
I expect McLaughlin has actually become an expert. And that would have been great, if only he had studied carpentry or computer programming, because then he would have a marketable skill. But in a competitive sport you can't make a living from just being an expert: You have to be elite, which means being a nosehair better than most of the regular experts.
The "10,000 hours" thing would be a lot less harmful, if people only understood that "expert" doesn't mean "elite". To be an expert is to know a craft in and out, but it doesn't mean you'll be at the level of the world's foremost experts as you see them on TV. If the craft is useful, then being an expert at it is useful regardless. Golf isn't useful, it's a zero sum game, and even experts can lose at that.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 14 2017, @07:31PM
Should word that as natural talent. But I agree. Some people have a knack for some things and the skill comes naturally. I am good with technology, electronics and computers along with mechanical stuff (I'm even okay with math as long as someone explains it to me in a way I can understand). I can visualize how things work in my head by thinking of them as smaller systems connected and working together. That has been something with me since I was a child. As far back as I can remember my toys were not action figures and other children's toys but extension cords, wires, and later on electric/electronic junk my father would bring home for me to play with. For some reason I always like the idea of connecting things together. Took to the computer like flies on shit and remember the first program I wrote in Q-Basic, a program to calculate the distance in miles for x light years. People ask me how I learned it and that's the thing, I didn't learn it, not from my point of view. I look at it as my brain was already wired for this work and all I needed was guidance to understanding these things via school, books, and the internet. It just clicks and I understand it.
I took a music recording elective in university. You sat in front of a workstation running multi track midi recording software and a keyboard. There was this one middle aged guy in the class, sort of an odd ball who was very quiet and spazzy. He would go into a zone and hammer on that keyboard like it was part of him. One day he was really intense, some of us in the back chuckled because he was so spastic. The professor, a professional session musician, took notice and went over to see what he was up to. He asked the student if he could have a listen and he was stunned with what he heard. I don't remember his exact words but they were along the lines of: "Wow! You are really talented. Do you play or compose professionally?" The student replied: "No. I only started playing last year after music 101". Professor was floored. He told the student he had the gift of music and he could even play professionally. Me? I couldn't compose twinkle twinkle little star if you left me locked in a room for a hundred years with that damn keyboard.
Some people's brains are wired for specific talents. And it must have to do with being able to visualize these things in your head. One film that even illustrated it was the animated Ratatouille, when Remy is explaining how he sees the foods and flavors as colors, shapes and sounds. That really clicked with me as I think of things as a sort of block diagram puzzle in my head. But I think there is a price to pay. I'm no neuroscientist, but I have a feeling that in order to tip the scales in intelligence, something else has to give. So you have quirks or mental disorders as a consequence. I have depression and anxiety issues. The keyboard virtuoso was spastic and quiet leading me to believe he might have been mildly autistic or aspergers.