The 10,000 Rule

TC's Atomic Dog posts on Testosterone Nation are always humorous and give you that mental kick in the ass you need. Whether it's that you could be doing better, or that trying to better yourself is always a step above most, TC seems to get right down to the core.

In one of his more recent articles, "Why You Suck", he points out that most professionals in their respective sport, and even in school are born right after the cutoff date for sign-ups (e.g. January 1st, Canadian Junior Hockey leagues stop accepting). Why? The answer is simple: more time. Think about it, a kid grows more in the 364 days (using hockey as an example) between January 2nd and January 1st of the next year than someone born in, let's say September. January kids are bigger and seen as better aptitudes. They get put on the first string, and get more play time.

Thias all boils down to the 10,000 Hour Rule. Quoted from the article:
"In the 1990's, psychologist K. Anders Ericsson conducted an experiment with the Berlin Academy of Music. He divided the school's violinists into three groups: the elite, the good, and those that were unlikely to ever play professionally.

All of the kids had started playing when they were 5 years old, but what divided them, aside from ability, was simply how many hours each had spent practicing. The really good ones had totaled 10,000 hours of practice, while the good ones had only managed to squeak away on the catgut for 8,000 hours or so. The underachievers? Just 4,000 hours of practice."

Another example he gives are The Beatles. They played in a strip club in Hamburg for over 2 years, 7 days a week for 8 hours, racking up 1200 live performances between 1960 and 1962. And what do you know, they're considered rock legends.

Am I near the 10,000 hour mark? Hell no. I doubt I'm even near 1000 hours. But the thing is, it's stuff like this that keeps me going.

Keep in mind, I have strict standards on what "beat" is for a song. Even if I have all the parts to a song down separately, it'll take maybe 10 replays before I'm able to play with an acceptable success rate.

And yes, this is one of those filler posts where I want to write about something, but haven't beaten a song yet.