Response to "The 10,000- Hour Rule" from Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Question: "If you could spend ten years to become an 'expert' in anything, what would it be? Why?"

The whole idea of that chapter, “The 10,000- Hour Rule,” is that in order to become an expert in a certain field, a person must have put at 10,000 hours towards the development of that field. The words of Malcolm Gladwell explain this best: “The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.” In the chapter, Gladwell further explains this concept by quoting the neurologist, Daniel Levitin. Levitin said “No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.” That amount of time, 10,000 hours, is equivalent to spending 416.666 straight days practicing that task. That is over one year of your life, without stopping, working towards achieving mastery in that task. The bottom line is that people such as Mozart, Bill Gates, and The Beatles achieved the fame and expertise that they did in their fields by putting in 10,000 hours, or about ten years, worth of work towards that task.

And so the question is posed: “If I could spend ten years to become an 'expert' in anything, what would it be?” For me, the ideal answer to this question to me would seem to be practicing medicine. That time spent practicing medicine might help in the development of new realizations that would help in discovering cures for the world's deadly diseases. Like I said, that would the “ideal” answer. But to be perfectly honest, that is not the type of person that I am.

If I had my choice, I would study music. I would listen to it, read it, and study the history behind it. I would learn many artists, composers, and genres. I would find out what elements in music history led to the development of the music that we have today. I would learn to understand how the music works, and why it is so aesthetically pleasing. I would study not just the kinds of music in the world, but the elements working behind to create that music. I find any and every aspect dealing with music to incredibly fascinating. It is amazing that a mixture of a multitude of sounds can create so many wonderful and different things to hear. I would like to study why this is so and how the elements that create these sounds work together to form something so completely unique.

I realize that this may not be a traditional field to master, as it is more of a concept than a task. But I feel that I could gain as much expertise about this subject as a hockey player could develop skill in the game of hockey for instance. The reason that I would choose to spend ten years of my life to become an expert in music is because music is one of the greatest aspects of my life. I truly enjoy it and I would love to have a deeper understanding of it. Music is such a valuable part of my life that I wish that I had the opportunity to appreciate it in all it's entirety a little bit more. Music is my passion and would love to become an expert on everything about it.