10, 000 Hours Of Practice In Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

Think of something you are passionate about. Is it a skill that you are able to push yourself in? People are always told that with enough hard work you could become a master of that skill. Even without natural talent, enough hard work at a skill will eventually build up the ability. By constantly pushing oneself past their limits during practice, they can improve quicker than someone who has the natural ability and doesn’t try. However, skill doesn’t always equal success. As Malcolm Gladwell states in his book The Outliers, luck plays a large role in the ability to obtain the 10,000 hours required to become an expert in a subject. However, many studies and even the researchers of the 10,000 hour study have rejected the rule outright. I disagree with Gladwell that 10,000 hours is required to become a master, and that luck plays a much larger role than he states.

One’s skills and talents define what someone does and how others perceive them. In Outliers, Gladwell speaks of the “10,000 Hour Rule”. He says that if one practices a skill for 10,000 hours, then they will master that skill. Some musicians, like the Beatles, are known for their music and their musical talent, because they practiced over 10,000 hours. Their musical skills help develop their identity and how others recognize them.

The author explains exactly what the professional asserts and how particular pieces of evidence relate to Gladwell’s unconventional idea of success.

This is far from a self-help book, but rather, as Gladwell states in an interview with Anderson Cooper, “a community-help book” and one that Gladwell hopes will make society, “start thinking about ways to provide opportunities to work hard” (CNN Anderson Cooper 360) . This book truly does just that, and provides engrossing and concise narratives that enable the reader to have the clarity to see what the process of successfulness looks like, rather than solely looking at its final

Despite the fact that I do not entirely agree with Gladwell’s full theory on the effect of cultural legacies, there is a portion of it that is insightful. When examining someone’s success, we must consider where they came from as a factor towards that success. The culture that is imbedded in them tends to make certain behaviors more common in people with those values. In Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he introduces a study in chapter eight about a woman named Renee. A professor named Alan Schoenfeld created a program designed to teach algebra and was taping Renee while she figured out a problem. It took her 22 minutes to solve the problem, but her persistence was the reason why she was able to figure it out. Gladwell states on page 247 that, “... imagine a country where Renee’s doggedness is not the exception, but a cultural trait, embedded as deeply as the culture of honor in the Cumberland Plateau.” He explains that

In Chapter 7 of The Outlier as well as Malcolm Gladwell’s discussion of Why Do Planes Crash? Gladwell discusses his precise thesis on uses of “mitigated’ speech within different cultures and how it determined success. Gladwell also explains in depth how why ‘“mitigated’ language was the reason for the plane crash. Many cultures, such as China, used ‘mitigated’ language as a form of authority; yet, in a culture like the United States, an individual will not have much success as issues can be overlooked. Overall, Gladwell's thesis explained why people, such a Bill Gates, are successful. Therefore, Gladwell's assertion of mitigation on work, culture, and communication is accurate in determining if a person is successful or not.An example that

Gladwell uses strong anecdotes and studies to prove all the claims he presents throughout his book. He explains he evidence well and ties everything back to the point he is trying to prove. This helps further understand Gladwell’s argument. But, even though Gladwell uses multiple anecdotes and studies to support his claims, the problem that is faced is that he merely suggests his sources are correct but never

“In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice. By contrast, the merely good students had totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours.” The control we have over our lives is determined by our work ethic, willingness to achieve our goals, and to strive towards them. Gladwell provides a stronger case of evidence by using proven statistics. These statistics provide the evidence that practicing regularly, and for long amounts of time does pay off in the long

The novel Outliers, aims to investigate the very thing we want for our family, our students, and ourselves. For most of our lives we have believed that with hard work, anyone can achieve success. That had to be the reason that poor immigrants like Andrew Carnegie and college dropouts like Bill Gates achieved unimaginable wealth. Most of us were taught that working harder than anyone else would lead to ultimate success.

Essentially, the topics Gladwell covered in this book include are, being at the right place at the right time, the 10,000-hour rule, timing, upbringing, and pursuing a meaningful career. Although all of these have been proven by Gladwell to be a major component of success, I do not agree with the idea of a particular upbringing will determine success. With this idea, Malcolm also includes that

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers (2008), he famously claims that 10,000 hours of practice is the “magic number of greatness” needed to become a master in any field (41). To support this, he cites Anders Ericsson’s 1993 study that “elite [piano] performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice” (39). However, his understanding of Ericsson’s study was incorrect. Ericsson later pushed back in a 2012 paper, “Our main point was that the best group of violinists had spent significantly more hours practising than the two groups of less accomplished groups of expert violinists, and vastly more time than amateur musicians. There is nothing magical about exactly 10,000 hours.”

For example, in order for me to learn how to do injections, or draw blood I’d have to practice in a clinic. Doing these tasks correctly means asking others for help when needed, setting a goal, and planning out the strategy to learning it, monitoring my progress, and getting feedback from others about my performance. The best way deliberate practice can help me fully learn these new skills is by practicing them repetitively. You know the saying “practice makes perfect?” You can’t learn how to do billing, or how to administer injections overnight. It takes time, and effort to learn something new. Paying attention to what you’re doing is very important as well.

Practicing something for a long time should make you an expert on the thing you practice for. This is said in Colvin’s writing, “nobody is great without work… There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice”(n/p). All professional soccer players practice hard to get to where they are. They even do cross and finish plays like this photo because there is almost always something to improve on in this play.

In fact it’s now deemed one of the most necessary academic traits and vital to the success of every student, but up until recently I have to say I wasn’t convinced. I’m good at music and bad at maths – therefor it’s far more productive for me to sit at a piano for 3 hours than to spend my evening working on quadratics and simultaneous equations – whatever those are. That s ME and everyone else I know has their own strengths and weaknesses too. We accept it and get on with it.

It seems that almost every business magnate has a daily habit which they credit as a contributing factor to their success. Whether or not these habits have actually helped pave the way to success is debatable, but the idea that practice, dedication and repetition can help you master a skill, become more focused and reach your goals seems logical enough.