10 years to being a genius in something

[Ghost of the dead horse]

They say that it takes 10 years of full time practice to develop a genius-level skill in something. If you have at least average intelligence and you haven't picked a grossly inappropriate skill set for your person, you would do extremely well in 10 years. Might take 20 years of time if you have only 4 hours/day for your self-education.

So, what would you pick?

I might want to be a kick-ass project engineer at software projects. Of course I'm afraid it might not happen. But, still.

How the situation might change if I'm allowed to pick a skill I may develop entirely on my own? I Might like singing, speaking several languages or some other performance.

What do you think of the concept "10 years to being a genius at something?"

 

[Cygnus]

nothing that requires too much planning or contemplating


only doing.

 

[Jaguar]

10 years. Are you referring to something Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi may have said? Regardless, no. I don't think one has to pass a standardized 10-year mark to be a genius at something, nor do I think one can just rip off their clothes, get on a scale, and weigh in as a "genius." I have a flexible attitude toward the word and how it can manifest.

 

[Riva]

My something would be to find the most suitable method to get what I want (or get close to what I want) within a limited time frame.

 

[GarrotTheThief]

That 10 year rule has some extreme outliers. Some people accomplish a genius level at 3 years.

Elon Musk said if you want to be an entrepenuer and you're not prepared to work 100 hours forget it and you are doomed to fail.

If you play guitar and can't strum one string 100 times once a day, a great guitar teacher said, forget it.

Being a genius at something isn't mentally as hard as it is a matter of grit. Success is determined by grit. If you want something bad enough you will do it.

Do you like watching T.v.? Do you want to be a genius at watching t.v.? Hmmm...maybe it's time to limit your t.v. time to ten to twenty minutes a day at most and start focusing on your path to self development.

Maybe you are a genius at meditation?

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I've heard the idea of "genius" used in this context to describe a truly notable individual in their use of skill, expertise, knowledge and whatnot. This concept has been around for a while, and many people note that not everyone is a "genius" - or someone they would recognize as a "genius" after 10 years of practice.

Some guy told he's expert on perpetual machines and free energy due to spending 30 years of his life on it. So my opinion is that 30 years (let alone 10 years) of work didn't make that guy a genius in his own field.

Still, some people achieve spectacular results from 10 years of work.

Yes I'm a fan of Csikszentmihalyi's work. This 10 year to genius -thing is repeated elsewhere too, though. I'm wondering if this is one of those unfounded anecdotes like the ones that claim you're using only 10 percent of your brain - or, if in the opposite, there's some merit to this claim.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

That 10 year rule has some extreme outliers. Some people accomplish a genius level at 3 years.

It seems more probable that a person who's genius after 3 years of practice has had extensive practice before those 3 years. For example, someone is a great tv actor after only 3 years; surprise, they've had other experience for acting for whole 7 years!

Elon Musk said if you want to be an entrepenuer and you're not prepared to work 100 hours forget it and you are doomed to fail.

The productivity maximum for a person occurs at about 40 hours of work / week so why would anyone be so egg-headed as to work 2,5x the optimum?

If you play guitar and can't strum one string 100 times once a day, a great guitar teacher said, forget it.

10,000 seems a more likely figure.

Being a genius at something isn't mentally as hard as it is a matter of grit. Success is determined by grit. If you want something bad enough you will do it.

I had to google this "grit" to find out what's it about. It seems much like "sisu" the people of my country are so proud of.

Do you like watching T.v.? Do you want to be a genius at watching t.v.? Hmmm...maybe it's time to limit your t.v. time to ten to twenty minutes a day at most and start focusing on your path to self development.

Maybe you are a genius at meditation?

I use this tecnique myself, addressing the reader. I'm not sure if you are referring to singular you (me, the OP) or a plular you. It's a good point though. Anyone spending their time on an unproductive thing would find themselves spectacularly proficient in an unproductive thing. Not worth the effort.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Ten years can allow you to master a skill, but not become a genius at it. I think there is a difference. Mastering a skill has to do with being able to recreate a complex task, but genius is about being able to generate new ideas. Perhaps the terms are not defined accurately in my understanding, but there is some type of distinction that should be made between the two types of mastery.

 

[Cellmold]

I should be a master model painter then since I've done it for nigh on 13 years. Unfortunately I'm just OK until you look too close.

My experience is that you get better with certain leaps of understanding and making effort to pursue new methods or try more advanced techniques. The speed at which someone does this is individually dependant. For example my brother was a natural painter of miniatures and i think art in general despite his wavering interest. I was amazed how he picked up on colour theory in model painting without even knowing what it was. Things like spot colours, the tri-colour choice.... which colours worked together etc...

But he was better than me after a week than I was after 5 years and while he now marvels at what I paint, I always say he could easily be better than me if he wanted to pick it up again. But he found booze and drugs a better distraction I guess.

 

[laterlazer]

I will never be a genius at anything then, I can't do the same thing for ten straight years

 

[Chthonic]

It's possible I suppose since 10yrs of not just faffing around but actual focused, dedicated effort could indeed produce results consistent with the label. Especially in the modern world where the word 'mastery' has lost a lot of it's value. People think they are masters of something if they stick with it for more than 2yrs. They are more usually adept, but not often true masters, in the way I would think about it.

What would I choose to do? I'm already doing it and I doubt anyone really is interested in knowing. Needless to say though that in 10yrs time, if I can keep up my effort I hope to have gained some level of skill with it. I doubt though that my level of skill with it will equal what I consider to be genius. Producing a result far surpassing all other masters of the craft. I like to reserve the word genius for those rare few who truly do something out beyond the ordinary, not merely for people who stick at something for a while.

 

[Name]

They say that it takes 10 years of full time practice to develop a genius-level skill in something. If you have at least average intelligence and you haven't picked a grossly inappropriate skill set for your person, you would do extremely well in 10 years. Might take 20 years of time if you have only 4 hours/day for your self-education.

The prescribed amount of time to master something, according to the book "The Outliers", is 10,000 hours of practice. If you practiced any craft for 4 hours a day for 7 years, that totals to 10,220 hours.

 

[Elfboy]

The prescribed amount of time to master something, according to the book "The Outliers", is 10,000 hours of practice. If you practiced any craft for 4 hours a day for 7 years, that totals to 10,220 hours.

are you an accountant by any chance?

 

[Name]

are you an accountant by any chance?

Close, finance.

 

[Again_Chloe]

are you an accountant by any chance?

so basic math skills are good enough to master accounting?

or was that a joke?

oh. maybe. Haha?

 

[Again_Chloe]

you dont have to wait 10 years to become a genius at anything.

All you need to do is to contract syphiilis.

 

[Elfboy]

so basic math skills are good enough to master accounting?
or was that a joke?
oh. maybe. Haha?

it wasn't the basic math skills as much as the very Te-ish "here is the precise calculation".

 

[Rail Tracer]

Language, I can't remember the person's name from the United Nations, but he can speak like 20(?) something languages/dialects fluently. I think the same person was also able to read and write in a similar amount.

That means I can learn Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French, Chinese Dialects, German, Italian, Swedish, Hindi Dialects, Korean, and Japanese and that will be the majority of the languages spoken in the world (besides already knowing how to speak English.)

With that amount of knowledge and mastery in languages, I'd be highly valued by governments and companies alike.

But that will be 10 years and a lifelong dedication to use all of those languages.

 

[Again_Chloe]

it wasn't the basic math skills as much as the very Te-ish "here is the precise calculation".

i am doing that all the time and my Te is weak. Such plans, '' i need to spend 4hrs a day studying German and in 4 months i am fluent'', but i never follow through

 

[Kullervo]

They say that it takes 10 years of full time practice to develop a genius-level skill in something. If you have at least average intelligence and you haven't picked a grossly inappropriate skill set for your person, you would do extremely well in 10 years. Might take 20 years of time if you have only 4 hours/day for your self-education.

Seriously if I spent four hours a day, every weekday just doing piano practice, theory reading and composition, wow man, I don't know where I would be now. (Not online, that's for sure, and probably knee deep in women.) You can achieve a lot just concentrating for half an hour.

So, what would you pick?

I might want to be a kick-ass project engineer at software projects. Of course I'm afraid it might not happen. But, still.

How the situation might change if I'm allowed to pick a skill I may develop entirely on my own? I Might like singing, speaking several languages or some other performance.

What do you think of the concept "10 years to being a genius at something?"

I think in 10 years one could easily create works of genius, provided they have natural talent in their chosen discipline. For this reason, "what would you pick?" isn't really the way I'd approach this. Ask yourself where your strengths and passions lie, and then play to them. I would not make a great particle physicist or a novelist, because my brain just isn't wired that way. But if you find something that really suits you and really commit to it (my problem), producing something special could only take half that time.

You see, I don't believe that you "become a genius". The way I look at it, formal instruction won't enable me to compose, I either can or I can't, and I know I can. What it can give me is a theoretical background, and that will hopefully enable me to work to the best of my potential, because I won't keep producing incoherent fragments.

Purely technical things like playing the piano to a more advanced level are different, they are much more weighted towards persistence, which means constant practice including very mundane exercises like scales and trills (neither of which are my strong points).