How Many Hours of Training Does It Take To Become An Expert?

Some of our associates have believed that the Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule will transform a novice into an expert.  They presumed that it is the golden rule for succeeding. 

Does reading the first 300 links of a Google search on Sunzi, does he/she become a Sunzi expert?  ... After performing the 10,000 hrs of any martial arts , does he/she becomes an expert of  "Karate?" or "Taijiquan?"   ... That is a myth that is pushed by people with poor and superficial analysis. ...

It is time for us to burst that bubble.

Filtering the Reality From Illusions

Following is an abridged listing of the reasons on why that rule is not valid in most cases:

• people do not possess the same learning aptitude;
• people are not born with the same economic resources; and 
• people do not always possess the same technical resources.

Those with the right attributes, might succeed early.  ... Will he/she succeed repeatedly?

Without having the right biological attributes, will he/she succeed?  The superficial expert who has no risk consequence in making a grand point, will say anything.   This is the society of high noise and low signal ratio.

Other Comments

Click here, here and here for other reasons why Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule is not always the absolute. 

Minor Jottings
Regardless of what the amateur experts say, it takes more than the reading of 300 links and a set of books for someone to be a strategy expert. By not able to assess the Big Tangible Picture, the "over-rated and over-stated" pseudo experts will fail.  It is only a matter of time.

By comprehending how the grand factors of politics, socialization and the economics interact with the grand setting of our information society, one realizes how challenging it is to succeed in this economy.

To compete against those with the greater set of resources, one must work a minimum of ten times as hard as the competition.  He/she must realize that understanding the technicality of one's profession is not enough. Those who can comprehending the philosophy, the psychology, the mathematics, the physics, the chemistry and the biology within one's profession, could secure the grander advantage.  It depends greatly on the "Five Critical Strategic Factors" of the situation.
  
Patience, control and persistence are some of the key factors to prevailing over the competition.  We will talk about the specifics behind that grand concept in a future post.

Life is rarely fair especially under a extreme competitive setting. Conclusively, the winner occasionally takes it all. The question is the duration of the expertise!? 

Updated on 06.02.2013