Malcolm Gladwell famously stated it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. This has been debunked over and over again by various experts. You can’t reduce growth and development to a formula: 10,000 hours = Mastery! How you spend each hour is the key.
I’m reminded of story I heard from my tai chi instructor:
A student of tai chi isn’t making any progress. The teacher asks him, “Have you practiced?”
The student replies, “I’ve practiced 100 hours since our last class.”
The teacher asks, “What do you do when you practice?”
“I do the form.”
“Do you pay attention to how you’re applying the principles?”
“No.”
“Do you actively seek out pockets of tension in your body and try to let it go?”
“No.”
The teacher tells the student, “You have not practiced 100 hours. You practiced one hour, 100 times.”
Intent and attention drive development. Even 10,000 hours will only add up to mastery if you spend those hours the right way. This brings me back to something I’ve posted about before: our cultural beliefs about time. “Time equals money!” is a frequent declaration, and it implies that we should reduce time spent in order to maximize profit.
But the key to quality is attention and care. Attention and care require an investment of time. 10,000 hours is a lot of time!
It’s also true that “haste makes waste.” Things done quickly are usually not done well.
In the end, my conviction is that quality matters most. Quality requires an investment of time. Things take as long as they take, if you want them done well. Stop worrying about time. What matters, what brings value to our endeavors, is intent, attention, and care.
John the Librarian 