1000 Hours or Practice

Mykieu Phan

Professor Maria Antonini

ESL 302

10,000 Hours of Practice

Thomas Edison puts it: “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”, that means no one gets good at anything without practice and practice a lot. The more we practice, the better we get. But, is it really need 10,000 hours to mastery? If 10,000 hours to be a master, the training only 4 hours or 40 hours, what will that make master? 10,000 hours of practice to help your prefect skill may not sufficient. Practice doesn’t account for all. Practice is important, but other factors like talent, how the practice is applied, how you set your goal and intelligence appear to play a bigger role. It has to be deliberate, dedicated time spent focusing on improvement.

In my opinion, no one success at a high level without innate talent. 10,000 hours is only the formula for talented people. Sometimes, the time helps hone the talent, but 10,000 hours should not be translated into a forgone conclusion. Daniel Levitin had the talent and the 10,000 hours for practice, that made all the difference. In a group of people, one of them needs 22 times more deliberate practice than other people to become a master.

Some people took several years to become a grandmaster; another achieve that level only after many years, giving them huge variance in the hours of practice they did. It depends on how that is applied. For example, you learn how to play golf, but you make the same mistakes every time you try that 10,000 hours of practicing that error will not improve, you will be a duffer, albeit an older one. Also, it depends on the field of interest. For instance, someone don’t need 10,000 hours to be an expert at knitting and crocheting.

I think, if you want to be internationally renowned in your field, the 10,000 hours is definitely a minimum commitment. Some people may have pass in lesser hours, some perhaps more hours. Does anyone who is successful in their niche is so because they have invested the 10,000 hours of practice? No, not necessary. The 10,000 figure should be treated as a reference point. The amount of work needed depends on the bigger the result you want to achieve, the harder work required.

Though I know from learning languages that you can’t casually listen to learn, you must be active, concentrated, engaged.