Sunday, January 4, 2009

Quote of The Week, Gladwell - 1/4/09


Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing that makes you good.

-Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers

On a friend's recommendation I read the third of Gladwell's 3 books (and in my opinion, the best) last month. It was one of the most interesting I've ever read.

In it he devotes an entire chapter to the idea that when a person spends 10,000 hours doing anything—be it learning the piano, programming computers, or playing hockey—they will become an expert in that particular field.

So a lot of practice will never make you perfect. But it will make you pretty fucking close.

dubs. out.

2 comments:

MB said...

great book - read it on a flight...and I definitely liked it better than Blink. It made me wonder what inherent advantage our generation has...and how long will it take us to recognize? I'm thinking digital...but there's something deeper there. Maybe digital + conversions + measurability? who knows. hope you're doing well, broseph.

jd said...

yea it's a great read. i think that the more books like these come out, obviously the greater the advantage for us. when you actually observe all these things that people have always just taken for granted, really interesting rationalizations will happen.

i'm doing great man. hope you are too.