Comments on: How To Become An Expert

By: Hunter Nuttall

Hunter Nuttall — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:56:21 +0000

@ Chuck, based on this, I don’t think anyone would doubt that you’re an expert at cleaning carpets!

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:15:53 +0000

I have been self employed for thirty Four years, I work six days a week *,10,12,14,sometimes 16hrs a day, six days a week. Does this make me an expert business person. My business is cleaning carpets and upholstery. I have been doing this longer then any one I know. Does this make me an expert? I am probably one of the first to be certified master cleaner in my area, I became one of the first certified inspectors in my area, I was a certified instructor, To train others in the field. Does this make me an expert? I have probably forgotten most of the terms and definitions I learned in all the books that I have read and courses I’v taken. Do I need to refresh my memory to be recognized as an expert?
This first thing I do automatically when I enter a room with carpet is look at the carpet, I can not help it. The carpet starts talking to me from the time I start a job until the time I finish, some times by the time I finish a job I can give you a life history about it or close to it. Does this make me an expert? I could Probably go on an on but I have to go. I would be interested in hearing what you think. What an expert is. Who would you like to have your carpets cleaned someone who could recite every word in the training manual and never cleaned a carpet before or some who has been there done that . OVER an OVER an Over.

By: Hunter Nuttall

Hunter Nuttall — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:15:42 +0000

@ Carol, I guess for some things you need some actual talent, but for most things, I’d think that love and passion + hours would be enough. I think I’m going to read the book, because I’ve seen a few people recommend it highly.

By: carol

carol — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:54:32 +0000

I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book. Basically, you can have a natural talent and not put in the hours and you’ll never be great. If you don’t have a natural talent and you put in the hours you won’t be great. But if you have a natural talent (which I think is close to the same thing as a love and passion for whatever it is) and you put in the hours, that’s when you become great.
Read the book. It’s absorbing. All his books are.

By: Hunter Nuttall

Hunter Nuttall — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:46:53 +0000

@ J.D., thanks for sharing those dimensions. And yeah, repetition is hugely important. Think about basketball players practicing their free throws over and over.

By: J.D. Meier

J.D. Meier — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:25:40 +0000

You reminded me of another dimension (not the 4th dimension) …

There’s 3 levels of mastery … intellectual, emotional, and physical. When you read something, you learn it at the intellectual level. When you get experience with it, you learn it at the emotional level … you have feelings about the information (for example, there’s certain practices that make me cringe just thinking about them). Finally, you bake something into your body.

I didn’t know this when I took my Saxophone lessons. I figured once I hit a note, it was good enough. I figured if I proved I could hit it once, why be repetitive. I didn’t realize repetition was the foundation for skill.

By: Hunter Nuttall

Hunter Nuttall — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:09:25 +0000

@ Bamboo Forest, that’s interesting. I’d like to hear from Michael Jordan’s high school coach about why he didn’t see potential. Maybe we look for the wrong things.

@ Avani-Mehta, “expert in what” is the question I’m wondering too.

@ Vered, I would tend to agree, but check out this. Even though you haven’t worked on blogging and social media for 10,000 hours, I think you carry over experience from other things.

@ Akemi, I don’t think the 10,000 hour rule says the older the wiser, because it depends on how you use those 10,000 hours. Not sure what an expert in writing or foreign language is, but you certainly make great use of your second language.

@ Marelisa, it could be that people without the talent don’t put in 10,000 hours, which makes it look like the hours are all that matter. I’m curious about that book now!

@ Chris, that’s a great example of deliberate practice! Maybe I’ll become a DBA…

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:38:55 +0000

Although natural gifts and abilities are very important, especially in specialized things like basketball or engineering, the point about deliberate practice was something we should all take home for that >80% of life that's "other stuff." I've seen this happen over and over. One guy I worked with made a point to fill each and every work day with challenges and to become more and more expert over time. He set goals for himself and even did informal studies and surveys on what IT specialty would be the most rewarding. Some folks sitting in the same cubicle area, starting at exactly the same point at the same time, just got through each day looking forward to 5 pm. Five years (which happens to be about 10,000 work hours) later? He's a much in-demand database administrator and the others are still doing exactly the same things they did in the beginning. When it's time to send out resumes or ask for a salary review, they may wonder where those five years went! Chris´s last blog post..Google Voice - makes the phone work for you!

By: Marelisa

Marelisa — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:34:53 +0000

Hi Hunter: I think it’s a combination of talent and work. That is, if you don’t have musical talent it doesn’t matter how much you practice, you’ll never be world class. However, once the talent is there–and it doesn’t have to be genius level talent–it does come down to who puts in the hours.

By: Akemi - Yes to Me

Akemi - Yes to Me — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:52:56 +0000

Overall, I agree with the importance of practice. The talent myth is a lazy people’s logic, crediting talent for success. However, I don’t agree with the cookie-cutter number of 10,000 hours, either. This is another myth: the older the wiser, the more the better. Some learn quickly. And success is yet another deal.

10,000 hours = 10 years, so 1000 hours per year, 2.7 plus hours a day average. I’m sure I’ve put in far more than this much of time in two areas of my life: learning English and writing.

I started learning English at age 13 like most kids in Japan. I did put on extra effort and by the time I was in college, I could speak better than the teachers (which was a problem). Today I write in my second language as part of my business. But then I still make singular/plural and some preposition errors. So am I an expert? And what is an expert in foreign language?

I was always writing, first in Japanese and then in English, so definitely have put in far more than 10,000 hours. And at least in my adulthood, I’ve been writing deliberately — to educate and persuade readers. I always think about the audience and the objective of any writing. Am I an expert writer? I guess I write pretty well. But I guess expert writer is not necessarily a big popular blogger

Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..Review: The Biology Of Belief By Bruce Lipton