Outliers and 10,000 Hours

The 10,000 taps thing comes from Pedro Sauer Black Belt Keith Owens. I just finally got a copy of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and read about the 10,000 Hour rule to mastery.

Zhoozhitzu do Graugardo blog also had a 1000 Flight Hours project -- rolling for 1000 hours and see where he's at.

I did the math and at the current rate of taps, in 10,000 hours of rolling I should tap about 1250 times. So technically, I should be aiming for 1250 taps, but that goal seems too near and too achievable. I'm going to stick to 10,000 taps.

Here are some more notes from the book.

• the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.
• But what truly distinguishes their [Beatles, Bill Gates] histories is not their extraordinary talent but their extraordinary opportunities. [opportunities to get to the magic 10k number.]
• A basketball player only has to be tall enough -- and the same is true of intelligence. Intelligence as a threshold. [after a certain IQ level, other factors come into play.]
• Only two parenting "philosophies" [rich and poor]. Rich/middle class parenting -- "concerted cultivation" -- an attempt to actively "foster and assess a child's talents, opinions and skills."
• Poor parents follow a strategy of "accomplishment of natural growth." They see as their responsibility to care for their children but to let them grow and develop on their own. So the poor kids don't know how to "customize." While the rich kids are taught a sense of entitlement, an attitude perfectly suited to succeed in modern world.
• This is backed up by Terman studies of kids. All the super-successful A kids were from the "cultivated" parenting styles.
• Since we know that outliers always have help along the way, can we sort through the ecology of Joe Flom and identify the conditions that helped create him?
• The sense of possibility so necessary for success comes not just from inside us or from our parents. It comes from our time: from the particular opportunities that our particular place in history presents us with. [it matters what era they were born in.]
• Meaningful work: autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward -- the three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying. Work that fulfills those three criteria is meaningful.
• Success arises out of steady accumulation of advantages: when and where you are born, what your parents did for a living, and what the circumstances of your upbringing. And cultural legacy?
• Who we are cannot be separated from where we're from.
• Airplane crashes -- usually involve seven consecutive human errors. Also in concert with bad weather, pilot fatigue and being behind schedule.
• Asians and math: Chinese four-years can count to 50; American kids only 15.
• Being good at math is not an innate ability. It's an attitude. Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard.
• We should be able to predict which countries are best at math simply by looking at which national cultures place the highest emphasis on effort and hard work. ... all the cultures shaped by wet-rice agriculture and meaningful work.
• Success follows a predictable course. It is not the brightest that succeed. Nor is it the sum of decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It's a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities -- and those who had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.
• the myth of the best and brightest and the self-made.