You Need 10,000 Hours And This to Master Your Craft (Michael Jordan Agrees)
K. Anders Ericsson is the Swedish psychologist who reasons that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at any craft.
It’s hard to argue this is incorrect, when it’s quite obvious that practice can make perfect.
- NBA basketball players spend hours shooting free throws
- Devoted chefs, like Gordon Ramsey, cook dish after dish each day
- Expert stock investors, like Warren Buffet, study the patterns of economics and dive deeply into upcoming innovation for the majority of his work day
These people are examples of practice making tangible perfection.
Michael Jordan can make a free throw shot 82% of the timehe shoots for it.
Gordon Ramsey has grown his net worth to$118 millionby becoming one of the most sought after chefs in the world.
Warren Buffet is worth $81.9 billion from becoming an expert at the stock market.
When I figured out that I wanted to become a writer, I asked myself, “how do I become good at writing articles?”.
I found Quora and saw how other writers were leveraging the platform for views. I started to write answer after answer, using upvotes and views to figure out what people seemed to relate with the most.
I’ve written almost 200 answers to date, with each answer taking about 45 minutes to write. In total, I’ve spent 150 hours on writing Quora answers, equal to almost four full work weeks.
Unsurprisingly, my answers today are written at ten fold the skill level they were written at a year ago.
Yet, practice isn’t the only reason I’ve been able to become a good writer.
I’ve become a good writer because I wrote a lot, in the right place.
I use Quora as feedback, learning how to become a better writer with each answer I publish.
What would have happened if I spent 150 hours writing in a word document on my computer? The documents would never been seen by anyone else, held in digital limbo on my hard drive.
Would I have become a great writer?
“You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”
Michael Jordan
To become a master of any craft, you need to do it a lot in the right place.
You need to find the space where you can practice day in and day out and receive the feedback that tells you how to become better.
What if Michael Jordan had spent eight hours each day practicing his free throw shots, finding out one year later that he had been standing two feet closer to the net than he was supposed to?
He wouldn’t be a good free thrower.
What if Gordon Ramsey had only cooked for himself, being the only person who could decide if a dish was too salty?
He wouldn’t be a good chef.
What if Warren Buffet had only read about how Barnes and Noble, Toys ‘R’ Us and Blockbuster were going to make their comeback?
He wouldn’t have invested in innovation and become a highly regarded trader.
If I had spent those 150 hours writing in a Word document, I would have never known how to improve my writing. Chances are, I would have written a lot of what my first Quora post looks like.
That isn’t movement towards expertise, it’s running in place.
Sure my muscles are becoming stronger, but I’m not going anywhere.
You’ll become an expert when you find this intersection between doing and growing. As Ericsson says, you do need to spend a lot of time performing an action to become good at it. But, you also need to do it in the right place to move in the right direction.
What is your craft and how do you practice it in front of an audience?
That answer is the key to mastery.
