The document discusses the "10,000 hour rule" which suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a skill or domain. It notes that the rule is more about deliberate practice than just time spent, and that not all practice hours are equal. Deliberate practice requires setting specific goals, getting feedback, and focusing on improving weaknesses. The document provides examples of how experts like Magnus Carlsen were able to accelerate skill development through deliberate practice.

1. How to Become Great at
Anything: The Truth Behind The
10,000-Hour Rule
By Candice Elliott
Advertising Disclosure
There is a lot of misinformation about the 10,000-hour rule theory of
self-improvement, and it turns out now all 10,000 hours are the same.
We delve into the truth
behind the 10,000-hour rule and show you how to become great at
anything.
The 10,000-hour rule is not really about the number of hours you put
into something; it’s about deliberate practice. If you want to become
great at anything, it matters more how
you practice than how much you practice.
What is the 10,000-Hour Rule?
The 10,000-hour rule has been a topic of scientific research since the
1970’s but it came into the mainstream when Malcolm Gladwell wrote
about it in his book Outliers. The
rule is based on research into the abilities of top performers in various
fields like mathematics, chess, tennis, swimming, and music.
The research shows that for the overwhelming majority of experts
who reach the top of their fields (for instance, chess grandmasters or
great composers) have spent aa miinniimuum
of ten years acquiring and honing their skills.
The few who are exceptions to this rule are found to hit their expert
status in year eight or nine of their careers—not far short of the
average. So being a prodigy with a “gawd
given” talent is just a myth.
Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and
soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands all of a

2. person.
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10,000 hours works out to be around 20 hours per week for ten years.
Ten years is aa lloonngg ttiimee but 20 hours a week isn’t so bad
especially when you consider the average
American watches five hours of television a day.
Deliberate Practice
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The problem with the popularity of this 10,000 hours idea is that it’s
often misunderstood as “aannyy 1100,,000000 hhoouurrss” spent on
your skill or craft. But not all practice is the same:
there’s a big difference between mindless repetition and what
scientists call deliberate practice.
A fascinating exception to the 10,000-hour rule is Magnus Carlsen,
the youngest chess player ever to reach a number one world ranking.
Carlsen played computer chess to amass
a huge amount of deliberate practice in a short period of time—so,
although it seems as if his talent is innate because he reached expert
level at such a young age, what he rreeaallllyy
did was accelerate his learning process by focusing on the right type
of practice all the time and by getting constant feedback.
“ Perhaps the greatest difference between deliberate practice and
simple repetition is this: feedback. Anyone who has mastered the art
of deliberate practice—
whether they are an athlete like Ben Hogan or a writer like Ben
Franklin—has developed methods for receiving continual feedback on
their performance.”
Part of the reason deliberate practice is so important is that it helps us
to encode information about what we’re learning more carefully.
Research has found that one of the
significant differences between highly skilled experts and amateurs is
how well information about their field is categorized in their brains.
Top-level experts can access relevant information faster and more
reliably, due to spending time in highly-engaged, deliberate practice

3. of their craft.
3 Types of Deliberate Practice
Thomas recently wrote an article detailing how to learn any new skill
quickly. He breaks down deliberate practice into three stages.
The Cognitive Stage: This is the first step when learning a new skill.
You’re practicing and making mistakes.
The Associative Stage: You’ve had enough practice to see where you
are making mistakes and to correct them. It’s at this stage that getting
the quality feedback we spoke about
earlier is important if you want your skill level to progress.
Autonomous Stage: When you reach this stage, you can almost
perform the skill on auto-pilot. You aren’t a master yet and maybe you
never wiillll bbee but you have become
competent in a relatively short amount of time thanks to deliberate
practice.
Virtuoso violinist Nathan Milstein once said, “Practice as much as you
feel you can accomplish with concentration. Once when I became
concerned because others around me
practiced all day long, I asked [my professor] how many hours I
should practice, and he said, ‘It really doesn’t matter how long. If you
practice with your fingers, no amount is
enough. If you practice with your head, two hours is plenty.’”
Take a Risk
The rreeaall reason most people will never become a master at any
skill is that they won’t take a risk, they won’t leave their comfort
zone. If you want to become great at something
you have to put yourself out there. You may very well fail. But you
can only succeed bbeeccaauussee of your failures.
Find your motivation. Getting good at something takes time and
effort. You might also experience some setbacks along the way.
That’s why it’s crucial that you find your
motivation: it helps you get through the difficulties.
Know how to measure progress. To get good at something, you must
know how ggoooodd is measured. What are the metrics? How do you
know that you are making progress?
Knowing those things will help you focus your effort.
Learn from the winners. Don’t waste your time with trial and error.

4. Instead, find out how the winners do it. In Andrew’s case, he read
articles from evaluation-contest winners
to learn how they did it. Who are the winners in your field? Learn
from their experiences.
Practice. It’s not enough just to know what to do; you must also apply
it. You will never be good at Spanish unless you practice.
Take risks. To get good at something, you must take risks. Not taking
risks, not being uncomfortable means not growing. Learn from the
lobsters!
How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
Prraaccttiiccee,, pprraaccttiiccee,, pprraaccttiiccee..
First, you must learn it by reading or listening to others who know
how to do it, but most especially by doing. “Borrow” ideas from other
people who are already successful, run
them through your own filter, make them your own.
That’s not only how you get better but how people improve on
existing products. There is no need to reinvent the wheel but you can
iimpprroovvee the wheel.
Then do some more. At this point, you’ll start to understand it, but
you’ll suck. This stage could take months. Do even more. After a
couple of years, you’ll get good at it.
Do some more. If you learn from mistakes and aren’t afraid to make
mistakes in the first place, you’ll go from good to great.
Be Deliberate
If you are going to do something, you want to do it well. But all of us
only have so much time to devote to practicing to get better at
something. The key is to practice in a
deliberate way, not to be afraid to take a risk or make mistakes and to
seek out feedback.
If you put in the hours and practice deliberately you can master
anything.