Elite performance is claimed to require roughly 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.
Gladwell's 2008 popularisation of Ericsson's research. Ericsson rejected the reading publicly: the number was an average, no threshold exists, and the quality of practice is what his data measured.
In practice
- Ericsson's own objection is the useful one: the number was an average across a small sample, and the quality of the practice was what his data measured.
- A pianist who has played for 12,000 hours without a teacher, a recording or a hard passage is not where the number implies.
- Possible explanations
- The explanation offered is that expertise requires an accumulated quantity of practice, with the figure standing as the threshold. Ericsson's own account made quality, feedback and difficulty the operative variables rather than the total.
- In its favour
- It drew wide attention to practice rather than talent, and the underlying research on structured practice is sound.
- Against it
- Ericsson rejected the fixed-hours reading publicly: the number was an average from one study of violinists, the range within that group was wide, and no threshold is supported.
- Standing
- Ericsson rejected the fixed-hours reading; no threshold is supported.
- Subject
- Creativity & Work
- Essay
- What gets in the way of good work