Is the 10,000-hour rule true?
Practise 10,000 hours and you'll be world-class. The scientist behind the original study said that's not what he found.
The story
A 2008 bestseller made it famous: practise for 10,000 hours and you'll be world-class at anything.
But in the original 1993 study by Anders Ericsson and colleagues, 10,000 hours was an average, for the best violinists by age 20. It wasn't a threshold, and plenty of them had practised less. Ericsson later wrote that the popular rule misread his work.
In 2014, a review of 88 studies found practice explained about 12% of the differences in performance overall, and under 1% in professions. Practice matters, but how you practise matters more than how long.
Before you count hours, ask:
- Am I practising, or just repeating?
- Who is giving me feedback?
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Questions people ask
Where does the 10,000-hour rule come from?
It was popularised by a 2008 bestselling book, based on a 1993 study by Anders Ericsson and colleagues of violinists.
Is the 10,000-hour rule true?
Not as a rule. In the original study, 10,000 hours was an average for the best violinists by age 20, not a threshold. A 2014 review of 88 studies found practice explained about 12% of differences in performance overall, and under 1% in professions.
What kind of practice works best?
Researchers point to deliberate practice: focused effort on specific weaknesses, with feedback, rather than simply repeating what you already do.
Sources
- Macnamara, Hambrick & Oswald (2014). Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education, and Professions: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Science 25(8)
- Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Römer (1993). The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. Psychological Review 100(3)
- Ericsson & Pool (2016). Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
General education, not personal or financial advice. Spotted an error? Email borrowedhindsight@gmail.com and we'll correct it. How we research.