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Old 04-12-2013, 08:01 AM   #66
Basia Halliop
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 711
Canada
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Re: Ranking systems in different countries

My impression when I read Gladwell talking about his observation of 10,000 hours to what he called mastery was that it was far more an order-of-magnitude estimate than an actual precise number of hours.

I.e., the point was he found it tended to be around 10,000 or 5,000, not 100s of hours and not 100,000 hours (closer to a lifetime full time).

Part of the context was in debunking the idea of the prodigy who effortlessly learns, by pointing out (using famous musicians, athletes, and chess players as examples) that most people who are unusually skilled at a young age put in a large number of hours of careful practice at a young age, and that the early work of eventual masters is amateurish.
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