BBC News - Can 10,000 hours of practice make you an expert?
A much-touted theory suggests that practising any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert. No innate talent? Not a problem. You just practice. But is it true?
One man who decided to test it is Dan McLaughlin, 34, a former commercial photographer from Portland, Oregon.
"The idea came in 2009. I was visiting my brother and we decided to play a par three, nine-hole course," he says. "I had never really been on a golf course and went out and shot a 57, which is horrible. It's 30 over par on an easy nine-hole course."
Far from being discouraged by his apparent lack of any natural talent for golf, Dan and his brother started talking about what it would take to become a professional golfer. Dan soon decided he wanted to try.
"I began the plan in April 2010 and I basically putted from one foot and slowly worked away from the hole," he says.
"Eighteen months into it I hit my first driver and now it's approaching four years and I'm about half way. So I'm 5,000 hours into the project. My current handicap is right at a 4.1 and the goal is to get down to a plus handicap [below zero] where I have the skill set to compete in a legitimate PGA tour event."
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Apparently MF's goal is to be a totally twuntish poster. And is 5000 hours in. I would say he is doing very well.
A much-touted theory suggests that practising any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert. No innate talent? Not a problem. You just practice. But is it true?
One man who decided to test it is Dan McLaughlin, 34, a former commercial photographer from Portland, Oregon.
"The idea came in 2009. I was visiting my brother and we decided to play a par three, nine-hole course," he says. "I had never really been on a golf course and went out and shot a 57, which is horrible. It's 30 over par on an easy nine-hole course."
Far from being discouraged by his apparent lack of any natural talent for golf, Dan and his brother started talking about what it would take to become a professional golfer. Dan soon decided he wanted to try.
"I began the plan in April 2010 and I basically putted from one foot and slowly worked away from the hole," he says.
"Eighteen months into it I hit my first driver and now it's approaching four years and I'm about half way. So I'm 5,000 hours into the project. My current handicap is right at a 4.1 and the goal is to get down to a plus handicap [below zero] where I have the skill set to compete in a legitimate PGA tour event."
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Apparently MF's goal is to be a totally twuntish poster. And is 5000 hours in. I would say he is doing very well.
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