Momentary Distraction #5

10,000 Hours To Master Anything… Including Yourself

Since "Outliers" was published by Malcolm Gladwell in 2008, it has been The Bible for aspiring professional athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians, etc. The book standardized mastery for whichever field the reader aimed to immerse themselves in.

Gladwell asserted that, on average, an individual would need to dedicate approximately 10,000 hours toward a cognitively complex task in order to master it.

Immediately after this book was published, people began poking holes. They’d present an anecdotal ~Outlier~ to the “Outlier” theory. (Ie. “Sprinting doesn’t take 10,000 hours to master… Usain Bolt only practiced for ..blah blah… HE'S A NATURAL”)

The same folks also pointed out that 10,000 hours is a measure of quantity over quality. You can’t become an expert without an excellent instructor demonstrating where to apply effort and when.

Gladwell conceded that this number was an average benchmark for cognitively challenging tasks where an individual must experience and process a laundry list of situations, possibilities, and scenarios. Running fast in a straight line wouldn’t be included in this list. I remain puzzled as to why people have gotten so upset with Gladwell’s theory. He gave readers a clear target to aim toward if they wished to master something challenging. A valiant pursuit, indeed.

Worst-case scenario, they overshoot on preparation/ practice and are better for it. If 10,000 hours is too daunting of a gap to stomach before starting out, you may want to evaluate if this activity is truly your passion. I’ll save my contrarian arguments against contrarian arguments for another post.

10,000 hours may seem intimidating, but an individual who practices for 5 hours a day, every day, can accomplish this goal in just over 5 years. Yeah… whip that calculator out.

Malcolm postulated that 10,000 hours was a prerequisite for mastering anything externally, and I’d extend that argument to say the same amount of time, if not more, is required to master the hardest field of them all: your own emotions.

Taming the brain is a motherfucker. Science as we know it can’t explain consciousness.

If you google “the meaning of life” or “how to be happy” you’re flooded with competing theories consisting of recipes that will bring you the life you think you want.

“Pair these micro-habits with this macro-mindset and a daily ice bath and you’re certain to reach a state of greater contentment.”

A playbook as it relates to becoming a master of your domain does not exist in the same sense that it does for memorizing all the potential scenarios on a chessboard.

That can be discouraging when contemplating where to start on the path to becoming a better person. The ambiguity diverts us to pursue more clear, objective accomplishments like money, status, and fame. We like things we can measure!!! So we wake up and set out to “DO” something, become someone.

All the while, we’re going about these pursuits with dangerous mental blindspots. You can read more about them in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, but they boil down to:

1. Filters;

2. Assumptions;

3. Predictions;

4. Memories;

5. Labels;

6. Emotions and;

7. Exaggeration.

We evolved to benefit from our brains operating this way. In small hunter-gatherer societies, filtering foreign concepts into the “danger” bucket allowed people to survive. They assumed everything could be a potential threat, remembered past run-ins with a life-threatening force, and labeled a present event as such. This process caused fearful emotions to exaggerate the sound coming from behind a bush into a tiger ready to pounce. Either it wasn’t a tiger and they went back to living their lives, or it was and they were prepared to defend themselves. Win-win.

10,000 years ago, seeing everything as a threat was crucial for survival, but now I’m sure you know a few people who operate this way. How are they holding up?

It’s easy to see how this mentality can be amplified in public discourse. Go on Twitter. How’s the world doing?

“Russia’s a threat. Globalization is a threat, but so is deglobalization. The left is a threat to the right, but the right is a threat to the left. AI is a threat to our jobs, and if we don’t shape up, the next election will be a threat to our democracy. “

It’s become a pandemic. Doomsday has always been right around the corner, but it’s become increasingly more challenging to shelter yourself from those who are always crying wolf.

However, my goal isn’t to ramble on about how the walls of society are crumbling around us. I truly don’t think that’s the case. Tying it back to the 10,000-hour rule, I find myself increasingly focused on becoming a master of existing within the reality that is, not the reality I think ought to be.

I’ve given myself this mandate, but I can’t just will myself into a peaceful state of mind. It’s fluid. It requires practice, effort, and time. 10,000 hours of time, maybe, to unwire the brain that worked well for our ancestors, but in a lot of ways no longer suits me.

The double-edged sword here is that there are a number of places to start when cleaning house. Which begs the question, “Where do I start?”

I asked myself this question, and came up with an answer:

“spend 10,000 hours being here and now”

My theory is that everything will fall into place from there. And my theory may have already been proven correct. Matt Killingsworth of Trackyourhappiness.org ran a study where he asked 15,000 people to report how they felt and what they were doing at the time. 650,000 reports over time showed that people were noticeably happier when they were fully present.

The beauty of being here and now is I can do it anywhere, anytime. Being fully aware of the present moment instead of being off somewhere else in my head considerably increases my chances of being happy.

10,000 hours of awareness becomes more digestible than 10,000 hours of practicing for another skill like learning the violin when you establish the distinction between DOING AND BEING.

You don’t “do aware”, you simply “be aware”, which means you can accomplish this while going about your day. While meditation is a great place to start your awareness practice, I’m not asking you to sit and focus on the breath (or whatever form of meditation you practice) for hours each day. That’s monk status, and even though they have bragging rights to the happiest man on earth, we all have things going on that prevent us from taking up that lifestyle. What’s funny is the “master of happiness” had clocked 10,000 hours of meditation. Coincidence?

You don’t have to sit with your eyes closed to meditate, however. If you’re still reading this (thank you) take a second to become aware of yourself in the present moment right now. You just meditated. It’s that simple.

A good idea might be to schedule 5-10 minutes a day where you’re not doing anything other than watching your thoughts appear and disappear. While you’re engaging in any activity, be fully present with it. Don’t multitask. Be aware that you are doing the task that you set out to do. Listen as your mind injects its danger warning when it feels like you are slipping into a relaxed, vulnerable state. Just notice the thought, you don’t have to do anything with it.

20 minutes of meditation a day for 45-60 days can have measurable effects on the brain. So 10 minutes in the morning and 10 and night, with intentional awareness interspersed throughout the day will get you to monk status in no time. Well, maybe a decade or so.

Whatever way you think you’re best suited to hit the 10,000-hour mark, go for it. Reverse engineer it and attach daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Start small then work your way up.

The alternative is you spend most of your life living somewhere else. Some purgatory of thought composed of potential future threats and past failures.

Have fun weighing that decision!

Weekly Recommendation

Speaking of ~brains~

I used to be prescribed Adderall.

I took it every day in High School and College.

I got off the drug when the successful results didn't translate into the real world.

If you're affected by the Adderall shortage, try Alpha Brain or Qualia Mind.

It mimics the prolonged ability to concentrate I derived from Adderall but doesn’t contain amphetamines. These nootropics were advertised as having a “cleaner” effect, making you less irritable. That’s certainly been my experience.

Until we meet again next week,

Matt

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