10,000 Hours!

In his book “Outliers” Malcolm Gladwell makes the point that individuals who are outstanding in any given area have put in at least 10,000 hours of practice. Let us just assume for a second this is true (and the assertion that training is more important than innate ability is a good thing): What are the implications?

At this point, a bit of math can help. Look at the table below. The top row shows how many hours a day you are willing to put in. The column on the left shows when you are starting this regime. The cells then tell you how many days a week you need to do this in order to get to 10,000 hours by age 21. Note that the areas in red are marked NA (not attainable), and the areas marked yellow would make your child dip below the CDC recommended hours of sleep, which is not a good idea.

Here is an example how to read this table: If you are starting your child off with 5 years, and think more than 3 hours is too much, you will have to have your child practice 4 days a week.

Whatever you think about subjecting your child to this kind of regimen, here are a few obvious conclusions:

• It is virtually impossible to pick more than one area to be really outstanding in. Forget shuffling them back between soccer, ballet and music class. Rather, pick one thing she realistically would continue into adulthood.
• Any activities beyond the “focus area” should be prioritized on the ability to pick up soft skills (i.e. be rich in interaction with other children and adults, like the boy scouts) rather than be focused on a hard skill (like music class).
• It is probably going to take your child until her mid-twenties to be exceptional. Find a college where she can continue her activity.