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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: 2) by Entropy on Monday August 14 2017, @10:10PM (1 child)
He reduced his handicap to a level achieved by fewer than 6% of golfers, that sounds really quite good. While he didn't succeed in the PGA tour, he was at roughly 6000/10000 of his goal hours, so a little over halfway there. It's unfortunate his body physically gave out, perhaps he would have made his goal?
Few people really have the guts to pursue something so single mindedly, I applaud him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @10:46PM
Agreed, especially since I'm sure most if not all of the golfers better than him have also put in their 6k more hours. The hypothesis is not that you'll become the best or one of the 10 best, but that you'll reach level of expertise. Your relative rank will then depend on how many other people have also reached world class expertise.