Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book Outliers of a 10,000 Hour-Rule. Simply stated, it’s the notion that it takes ten thousand hours of practicing something in an effort to achieve mastery. Though there are obviously some exceptions to the rule, I can largely agree with the idea that practice makes perfect and that becoming massively skilled in any skill or profession is essential.
And thus brings up the problem of the educational system in the U.S. Instead of practically preparing students for the future, it is more about regurgitation and recitation rather than discovery and independent critical thinking. Even in college the skills you learn when studying a “major” isn’t necessarily 100% applicable to your future career.
In layman’s terms ten thousand hours is equivalent to 5 years of working full time in any profession. It will not be till I’m done with my fifth year of teaching that I will become a master of what I intend to do. I hope in the future everybody can become a master of their profession free from the rigid necessity of a college degree. There’s literally thousands of plumbers, computer scientists, and philosophers that became master of their terrain by simply practicing (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg included). In the end, I leave the words of Macklemore to inspire all of us to become the best of what we want to be, rather than what is prescribed to us by society.
