The 10,000 Hour Rule is Dead
David Epstein builds a convincing case that all work and no play is the path to mediocrity
In 2008, possibly sharing a hairstylist with Sideshow Bob, Malcolm Gladwell released his third book, Outliers. This book was built around the argument that the key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill is a matter of practicing the correct way for a total of around 10,000 hours. Drawing on the examples of Bill Gates, law firms, and The Beatles, Gladwell birthed the “10,000-hour rule” industry. Any number of business strategy and self-help books have now been written debating the exact specifics and mechanics of the 10,000 hours needed for proficiency in a field or discipline.
The first time David Epstein met Malcolm Gladwell (who writing for the New Yorker had pioneered a form of essay that blended statistics, psychology, biographical interviews and sports writing) was for a debate at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Epstein’s first book was the well-received The Sports Gene, and the debate set up an interesting discussion along the lines of nurture versus nature. The next day, Gladwell invited Epstein for an interval training session. Gladwell was a competitive amateur runner, and so was Epstein (whose specialism at university was the 800m). While warming up, they had a conversation about Tiger Woods…
