I finished this podcast today from the folks at Freakonomics. If you’re not familiar, check them out. They did a documentary feature, like, a decade ago, but I believe they first burst onto the scene with a book of the same name. Anyway, they’ve now been doing this podcast for years, and I’ve been listening for almost that long. The subject the past couple weeks has been self-improvement…and this particular episode was on how to become great at something. GREAT at something. Elite. One of the best.
I’m familiar with the “10,000 Hour” rule; I’d imagine you’ve probably heard of it, too. My relationship with that rule is a bit odd: until recently, I didn’t actually realize where it came from. Honestly, I thought it was some ancient axiom. For reals. No idea that it was from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outlier, which is only like seven years old now. No idea. I heard that phrase, “10,000 hours,” I never actually took it literally. It was a figurative number for me, telling me “yeah, man, that’s how freaking long it takes to get really GOOD at something. A long, long time. Lots and lots and lots of work, and then some more work.” It was a comforting concept to me, because it meant that all I had to do was actually put in the work. I knew I could do that. It was within my power.
Well, Gladwell’s been thrown a bit to the wolves over that number, which he meant quite literally is the magic number, thereabouts, to pull greatness from raw talent. Even from the man who’s study that Gladwell had taken that number from…and therein lies the subject of this Freakonomics podcast on how to become great at something. What Gladwell is missing, Ericsson argues, the man who actually did the real study, is that it doesn’t just take 10,000 hours to become great at something…it takes 10,000 hours of “directed-practice.” That is to say practice that has a very specific set of goals and qualities, some of which include constantly putting the pupil into a state outside their comfort zone, and getting consistent, expert feedback on their work/results.
That. Is. What. I. Am. Missing.
Going beyond my comfort zone…and much more importantly, writing in a vacuum without consistent feedback from an expert teacher or teachers. Ericsson even argues that the consistent feedback is the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of directed-practice.
So, that’s the quandary I find myself in, fellow folks. How do I find myself a mentor for my writing? What have other writers done that I really respect in regards to getting consistent feedback during THIER formative years?
I wrote all my pages today, and a little extra. I was very happy with that. I’m about five days “behind,” unfortunately…but that’s okay. I set my stretch goal ambitiously for a reason. I must stay ambitious. I must put myself outside of my comfort zone! Diving into this novel is *definitely* that.
I liked what I wrote today. It took me literally two hours to finally start writing once I’d sat down to do it…but I still did it. The writing will be tough now and then. I know that now after having gone through it once already. But once I got going, the writing really flowed out. I knew what I was writing. It was all true today. The truth comes and goes in these first drafts and these early days of me figuring out who I am as a writer. Today was a good day.
Anywho…here’s to directed practice, and here’s to 10,000 hours. And here’s to become great…whatever that fucking means. I just know that I’m not there yet. But I will be. Some day.
‘Night.