10,000 Hours

 A theory exists that it takes "10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials, like playing the violin or getting as good as Bill Gates at computer programming."

This theory was popularized in a book written by Malcolm Gladwell called "Outliers." In it he dissects the success of people as diverse as The Beatles, Bill Gates, Canadian hockey players, a mega-successful lawyer etc.

A co-author of the study from which this conclusion comes is Anders Ericsson. He claims Gladwell left out an important consideration - that how good a student's teacher is has significant impact on their success as well.

10,000 hours is roughly translated as 10 years. So if I choose to master something of value, theoretically, I would be 77 by the time I emerged into the world as the genius I eventually expect to be recognized as.

I'm kind of tired already, though.

I remember learning to play the trumpet. I was a damn good trumpet player - first trumpet first chair as a junior in high school. I succeeded David Tick and held the chair for two years.

David Tick was super cool. He sat in the stands at football games with his trumpet, smoking a cigarette, long hair flowing, while all the girls swooned over him. He was an atypical band student. He was a bad boy.

He graduated, I inherited the seat. I was not a bad boy but I could very definitely play.

My mother insisted that my brother and I practice our instruments 1/2 hour a day. That was the deal. My parents bought the instruments but we had to commit to regular practice. It was a pain in the ass but the discipline definitely contributed to our success. My brother is an excellent drummer to this very day.

That's the practice part.

I took lessons from Harry Harotian. This should be the good teacher part of the equation.

Trouble is he would fall asleep while I played. Literally fall asleep. I would get to the end of a phrase, stop playing and be met be silence. I'd look over and he'd be sleeping in his chair.

How the hell do you sleep with a trumpet trumpeting 3 feet away from you? I don't know, but he did.

I also don't know if it was a commentary on his lifestyle or a commentary on my playing.