{"id":117084,"date":"2023-11-07T08:32:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=117084"},"modified":"2023-11-07T15:18:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:18:56","slug":"is-the-10000-hour-rule-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/is-the-10000-hour-rule-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the 10,000-Hour Rule True? It Depends on Your Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is the 10,000-hour rule true? How long does it really take to become proficient in a skill?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a notion going around that you must invest 10,000 hours of practice if you want to adopt a new skill. But, that&#8217;s not quite the way it is. In <em>The First 20 Hours<\/em>, skill acquisition expert Josh Kaufman sets the record straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more to learn the truth about the 10,000-hour rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-is-the-10-000-hour-rule-true\">Is the 10,000-Hour Rule True?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Learning a new skill requires time and effort, but Kaufman argues that it\u2019s not as hard as people often think: <strong>You can<\/strong> <strong>achieve a decent level of proficiency in most skills with only 20 hours of practice.<\/strong> He attributes the misconception that learning new things is too hard and too time-consuming in part to the <em>10,000-hour rule<\/em>, an idea first popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/outliers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Outliers<\/em><\/a>. According to Gladwell, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/becoming-an-expert\/\">becoming an expert<\/a> in any skill requires at least 10,000 hours of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/deliberate-practice-definition\/\">deliberate practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Gladwell\u2019s 10,000-hour rule may be even more misconstrued than Kaufman suggests. In <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/outliers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Outliers<\/em><\/a>, Gladwell writes that it takes 10,000 hours to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/become-an-expert\/\">become an expert<\/a> in a particular skill, but he uses that estimate not as a <em>recommendation<\/em> but instead as an illustration of <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/outliers\/chapter-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the role opportunity plays<\/a> in being able to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/master-a-skill\/\">master skills<\/a>. He argues that most highly successful people have had the luxury to be able to devote thousands of hours to their craft and that mastery isn\u2019t just a matter of talent or effort but also of luck and privilege.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, is the 10,000-hour rule true? Kaufman points out a crucial factor about skill acquisition that\u2019s often lost in translation: There\u2019s a difference between <em>learning <\/em>a skill and <em>mastering <\/em>it. The 10,000-hour rule applies only to attaining an expert-level performance in a skill, which isn\u2019t the goal for most learners. Most of us want to learn a new skill for personal enjoyment and satisfaction, not to become world-class experts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Basic knowledge of a skill and mastery each have their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/mastering-one-vs-multiple-things-deep-dive-mastery-amer-ali\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">advantages and disadvantages<\/a>. If you\u2019ve developed basic competence in many skills, you can combine diverse insights and come up with innovative ideas. If you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-master-a-skill-2\/\">master a skill<\/a>, you can develop a deep and intuitive understanding of it and rise above your competitors. Because each has its benefits, some experts suggest you find a balance between these two approaches and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/generalist-specialist-why-t-shaped-jonathan-ken\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">become T-shaped<\/a>: Develop a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-understand-anything-deeply\/\">deep understanding<\/a> of one skill and a broad exposure to multiple others. This way, you can combine deep specialist knowledge of one skill with a broad perspective that comes from dabbling in various skills.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kaufman writes that, if you just learn the essential components of a skill, you\u2019ll boost your performance significantly. Only after reaching a certain threshold does it become harder and more time-consuming to improve, and only then does the 10,000-hour rule come into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: The idea that you can become relatively good at a skill just by learning the key components is supported by <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-one-thing\/part-1-chapter-4#the-80-20-rule\">the 80\/20 rule<\/a> (also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-pareto-principle\/\">the Pareto Principle<\/a>), which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/gary-w-keller\/\">Gary Keller<\/a> explains in <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-one-thing\"><em>The One Thing<\/em><\/a>. This rule states that 20% of your effort leads to 80% of the results. This means that you can achieve most of your desired outcome by focusing on the few most important aspects of the skill. For example, if you want to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advantages-of-learning-a-foreign-language\/\">learn a foreign language<\/a>, you can hold 80% of everyday conversations by learning a small set of the most common words.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is the 10,000-hour rule true? How long does it really take to become proficient in a skill? There&#8217;s a notion going around that you must invest 10,000 hours of practice if you want to adopt a new skill. But, that&#8217;s not quite the way it is. In The First 20 Hours, skill acquisition expert Josh Kaufman sets the record straight. Read more to learn the truth about the 10,000-hour rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":60974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,43],"tags":[1317],"class_list":["post-117084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-self-improvement","tag-the-first-20-hours","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is the 10,000-Hour Rule True? It Depends on Your Goal - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is the 10,000-hour rule true? Skill acquisition expert Josh Kaufman points out a crucial factor that\u2019s often lost in translation. 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