10000 hours to mastery.

[pgriz]

Malcolm Gladwell in his book "Outliers", makes the point that to truly master a discipline, you need to spend at least 10,000 hours in practice and hard work. This works out to, roughly, 10 years of persistent effort. His thesis seems to be pretty persuasive, and applies to disparate groups such as composers, musicians, scientists, writers, etc. I'd think photography is equally applicable. So, what are your thoughts?

 

[Nubbs]

We were actually talking about this today at lunch. I would agree that it take many hours to master a skill. However some people are can be ahead of the curve because of natural talent.

 

[Josh66]

I think that unless you did it full time, it would probably be longer than 10 years...

Assuming that you work 40 hours a week, and take 2 weeks off a year - 1 year is 2000 hours. I know I sure as hell don't spend 40 hours a week on photography, or even 20 hours a week... (10,000 hours over 10 years would be 20 hours a week.) I'm probably doing 'photography related stuff' for 5-10 hours a week...

10 years of doing something full time does some about right though, maybe a few years less depending on the person.

 

[pgriz]

Well, that's the interesting thing. You can have people who put in the time and effort and still don't get to "mastery", and then you have those with the additional talent who do. Those with talent but without the work ethic also flirt with greatness but don't achieve it.

 

[dxqcanada2]

Hmm, master not, you young pgriz.

Mastering a skill requires deep understanding ... not just repetition of the actions.

 

[Derrel]

I think he might well be about right.

 

[reedshots]

You can do anything given enough time, money and effort, but talent is not (for the most part) something you can learn. You either have it or not. You can read, take classes and understand everything about how to get perfect exposure, composition and all the nuances of taking great photographs, but still lack the talent to do so.

 

[PASM]

My guestimate calculations (+/- 20%) are 17,520 hours digital photo-editing since 1999. 8,350 hours photography since 1980 (mainly digital since 2001). On top of that is old-school paste-up and DTP>Web era as a graphic-designer, 1987-2002; several thousand hours fine-art painting/mixed-media..g*d knows how many hours freehand-art since childhood too. I've been dedicated to the 2D visual image my whole life

 

[PASM]

....I think i'm about half-way there.

 

[pgriz]

....I think i'm about half-way there.

Ah, I was about to ask... Still, an impressive amount of time to spend in a field! I think I remember someone telling me that the benefit of education is not that you know stuff, but that you can ask better questions. So, the more we know, the more we know that we don't know...

 

[PASM]

That's a good one. I agree. Pgriz. I like Derrel's sig because that's how i feel about it (and painting also).

 

[photocist]

....I think i'm about half-way there.

Ah, I was about to ask... Still, an impressive amount of time to spend in a field! I think I remember someone telling me that the benefit of education is not that you know stuff, but that you can ask better questions. So, the more we know, the more we know that we don't know...

knowing what one doesnt know is the first step. one cant learn something they dont know they can learn!

 

[spacefuzz]

hmmm 10,000 hours to mastery.......just seems too general of a statement. Sweeping generalizations just usually bug me

 

[KmH]

However some people are can be ahead of the curve because of natural talent.

True, but few people have true natural talent, and still must assimilate the technical aspects of a craft.

 

[Nubbs]

However some people are can be ahead of the curve because of natural talent.

True, but few people have true natural talent, and still must assimilate the technical aspects of a craft.

I agree 100% with that statement. Somebody else posted also that there is more to mastery than just being able to do something extremely well. You have to understand it. My team and I mastered or last profession and up until the day we retired we were still learning something new on a daily basis.