More on the 10,000 Hour Debate

First a review. In 2008 author Malcolm Gladwell popularized the notion, taken from an academic paper, that the key to success was practicing 10,000 hours at something. It spurred a lot of controversy and discussion, a lot of it in the last six months or so. Here’s the latest. It’s from another paper that criticizes the original paper and argues that the 10,000 rule was overstated in the original paper. To be fair to Gladwell, he’s written recently that people who quote him simplify and mis-state what he originally wrote and that he always agreed 10,000 hours of practice was only an average and there are other variables at play.

A new study may give Gladwell pause. According to Popular Science, a scientific study published in the journal Intelligence states, ”we have empirical evidence that deliberate practice, while important, is not as important as Ericsson has argued it is — evidence that it does not largely account for individual differences in performance.” Popular Science reports that the study was based on another, which was published in the same journal last year.