Expertise... because I'll want something to read later after moving house all day.

[ewt]

What do you consider yourself an expert at? Why?

Studies show that most world-class experts in any field have spent at least 10000 hours working on the related skills. No, I don't have a citation to hand... What have you spent 10000 hours or more learning or practising? That's 3 hours a day for 10 years.

How much overlap is there between these categories?

Do you consider yourself a specialist or a generalist? Why?

Is expertise absolute or relative?

Comments

[siderea]

It seems pretty obvious that 10k hours may be necessary to world-class expertise, but not sufficient. I've easily far surpassed it with "typing at a keyboard" yet I am manifestly not a world-class typist.

Meanwhile, I would be surprised if there are more than a thousand people on the planet who are more familiar with European dance music 1450-1650AD than I am. It turns out that's an easy thing to become an expert in with access to certain resources, a serious interest in the topic, and some time -- it's a very small field because it's mostly not interesting to most musicians/musicologists. It can happen to you (and most often does) totally by accident. I don't think I got 10k hrs in that field.

Also meanwhile, 10k hrs sounds lowish for world-class expertise to me. I mean, it's an hour and a half a day for 20 years. So we're talking every diligent music student who started a 5 and made it to 25. (Assuming by then you're making up for starting at a 1/2 hr of practice and ramping up.) I mean, I was probably creeping up on 5k hrs at piano when I quit at 15 -- and I stunk. Is every graduating conservatory student a world-class expert?

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I don't think 10K hours is always a necessary prerequisite or always sufficient to be a world-class expert. As a general guideline it can work well with appropriate specialization and sufficiently sophisticated study habits. As I know all too well, playing a scale 20 times the wrong way won't help me play it right the next, especially if the mistake is the same each time. The students of mine who play best are the ones who practise strategically, not the ones who put the most hours in. Of course, those who practise strategically are also the ones who are less likely to simply give up before the 10K hour mark.

I don't think 10K hours playing an instrument will make most people truly world-class experts even if they do have good practise habits, but 10K hours studying the work of just one composer might.