The 10,000 Hour Rule in Everyday Life

  Last Friday while getting ready for school I was listening to Eric and Kathy ( a popular morning radio show on 101.9 fm). Eric mentions how some people have been doing things for a very long time, but still are not good at them. He goes on to mention The Outliers, specifically focusing on the 10,000 hour rule. They began to have people call in with examples of things they have done for over 10,000 hours, but are still not experts at. Some common examples include driving, golfing, tennis, and cooking. This concept clearly made a lot of people question the amount of time that they have been doing something and how good they were at it.

From the calls and personal experience I have discerned that there are some things you just can't master regardless of how much time you put into it. Gladwell's argument relies on three factors: time, opportunity, and talent. He clearly privileges time and opportunity over natural talent. The majority of the callers were not familiar with Gladwell or his argument, so they often argued that some people are just talented or gifted, while others are not. Previous to hearing the caller's opinions I had agreed with Gladwell's argument, that the amount of time and opportunity allotted to practice is in direct proportion with the amount of success one ultimately achieves. However, when callers began to discuss simple things like driving, cooking, and baking I began to realize that talent and natural aptitude play a large role in daily life. I have tried to bake cookies hundreds of times, but they are never really anything special. Am I not focused enough ? Do I have less opportunity than other talented bakers? Are circumstances outside of myself (such as work or school) affecting my baking? Probably not, baking is just something that doesn't come naturally to me. I thought it was interesting to apply Gladwell's argument to simple things instead of athletics or computer programming.