Re: [Harp-L] 10000 hours

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

Inasmuch as the average person who works a 40 hour week @ 52 weeks a  
year, while they don't actually work 2080 hours, they are paid for  
2080 hours. If I extrapolate this correctly, this would mean that if  
a person were to practice 3.43 hours per day, each and every day, no  
holidays, no vacations, no sick time, it would take nearly 10 years  
to reach mastery in any endeavor? Under these criteria, I have to  
agree with you, as far as music is concerned. But this assumes that  
the person has reasonable abilities and talents.
In other fields, I'm not so sure.

I (personally) have always felt that if person started working at a  
40 hr per week job and this was from the age of 16 till 66, that  
meant 50 years. In such a case, it would be hard for me to imagine  
that 10,ooo hours would be enough. That's less than 5 years. The  
other day I heard an interesting term..'Master Jeweler'. Wow, what  
constitutes a master jeweler? I would think that jewelers come at all  
levels of expertise and that the only way to become a master would be  
if you could cut very expensive stones and still not give the owner 
(s) a heart attack while doing it.

I also have to laugh at master plumbers. If you can do the job,  
you're a plumber. If you can't, you're not. Norm Abrams from the  
'This Old House' program. Billed as a master carpenter. Hah, I have  
caught him making mistakes. When he does, they cut the film. Once you  
make master level, you don't make mistakes. You are being paid at a  
master level and mistakes are only allowed at Apprentice, Journeyman,  
and Craftsman levels.

smo-joe  (who would rather Ab together than Abalone)

On Mar 16, 2009, at 7:56 AM, Garry Hodgson wrote:

> interesting article about what it takes to acquire mastery of an  
> activity.
> they're not talking about harp, or even music, mostly.  but i  
> suspect it
> applies here as well.
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123699289174827161.html
>
>
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