Does 10,000 hours really make you an expert?

Today, instead of talking about specific technical issues, I will talk about personal growth issues. You may be familiar with the 10,000-hour rule. The author Gladwell said in his book "Outliers": "The reason why people think geniuses are extraordinary is that It's not that the talent is superhuman, but the constant effort. Ten thousand hours of training is a necessary condition for anyone to become a world-class master from ordinary." This is the "10,000-hour rule". The author's original intention is to become an expert in a certain field, and at least 10,000 hours must be invested.

So as long as you invest more than 10,000 hours in a field, you can become an expert in that field? Let's do a simple calculation. We calculate it by working 5 days a week and 8 hours a day. 10,000 hours is 5 years. However, most people who have worked for 5 years are not experts in their fields. Taking domestic programmers as an example, it may be possible to save 10,000 hours of work after 3 years of work, but it is rare that programmers with 3 years of work experience can be regarded as experts. It can be said that most programmers cannot become experts in 10,000 hours. .

The 10,000 hour rule is just rhetoric? Not really, but most people misunderstand the 10,000-hour rule. Gladwell also mentioned in "Outliers" that the "10,000-hour rule" is just a necessary condition for becoming an expert. We have learned the difference between sufficient conditions and necessary conditions in high school mathematics. To put it bluntly here, it takes 10,000 hours of training to become an expert, but 10,000 hours of training does not necessarily mean becoming an expert. Most people work for ten years and do not accumulate ten years of work experience, but use one year of work experience for ten years.

So how can we make the 10,000-hour rule effective? To put it bluntly, how can you increase your probability of becoming an expert in 10,000 hours? Some time ago, I saw a video summarizing the other 4 necessary conditions of the ten thousand hour rule. I feel that it is quite right. I will share it with you after summarizing and sorting it out. I hope it will be helpful to you.

timely feedback

The first is feedback. Why is feedback important? After you have done something, you can only judge whether you are doing it right by getting feedback. Feedback can be the result of doing things or the opinions of others. For example, programming is actually an easy thing to get feedback on. You compile and run the code after writing the code. The compiler will quickly tell you whether there is any problem with the code, and the execution result will also tell you whether the logic of your code is correct or not. After the new function is launched Users will also tell you whether this function is good or not through behavior... So the world of programmers is not lack of feedback, but lack of attention to feedback.

For another example, students who participated in competitions in college may have a deep understanding that writing questions in preparation for participating in competitions is one of the best ways to learn algorithms. The OJ (Online Judge) platform we use has many algorithm questions. After you write the code You can quickly verify the accuracy of your code, which is equivalent to getting feedback quickly. Judging from the ACM captain of my university and the experience of interviewing school admissions in recent years, the students who have participated in the algorithm competition are obviously stronger than those who have no relevant experience in algorithms. .

If you focus on your own growth, you have to find or create an environment where you can get feedback quickly. If you are a student, I suggest you brush Leetcode to improve your algorithm ability. If you are in the workplace, I suggest you communicate with your users and listen to their feedback on the functions you have made.

effective environment

The second point is actually a supplement to the first point! Let me emphasize here that feedback is very important, but not all feedback is correct or useful. In some special circumstances, some feedback may be wrong feedback or random feedback. At this time, although you get feedback quickly, there is no regularity between these feedbacks and your behavior, and you will not be able to learn from these feedbacks. A typical example here is the stock market. If you learn to trade stocks now, you will know whether you are making a profit or a loss soon after you buy or sell a stock, but it is difficult for you to find any patterns in it. In this case, no matter how many times you buy or sell stocks, you are also very good. Difficult to improve your level of stock trading.

As a programmer, you don't need to worry too much about this, because most of the computer field is deterministic and very regular. Only those students who are purely doing business need to pay attention. The business problems themselves are not pure computer problems. In the process of business development, there may still be abnormal feedback. In this case, it is recommended to actively communicate with your users. , get real feedback from real user mouths, not those random noises.

effective guidance

If feedback helps you identify the gap between yourself and your goals, then growth is about bridging the gap between you and your goals. But many times, you may not be able to bridge the gap with your own strength, and sometimes you can't even find the way forward. At this time, if you have corresponding guidance, you will be able to break through yourself more easily. With effective guidance, you can step on less pits and take a lot of detours, and achieve more with less. Of course, the guidance here is broad, not limited to the guidance of teachers, but also the guidance of excellent courses.

When you first enter the workplace, if you can meet a reliable team and a reliable mentor, all the above three requirements will be satisfied. You will be the CTO and marry Bai Fumei to the peak of life. It will be just around the corner. There is an old saying that a famous teacher makes a great apprentice. I believe you must have heard it before. You can definitely become better if you have excellent people to guide you.

If you want to systematically learn a certain knowledge, it is best to find someone who is more experienced in the field to guide you (but this is either expensive or simply impossible to find), and the second is to find a related and excellent Tutorials, the Internet is so popular today, there is no shortage of related tutorials for all kinds of knowledge, but it is still necessary to do a good job of screening and screening.

deliberate practice

The above three are external factors, and sometimes it is difficult to control. Deliberate practice is something you can control. There is a book called Deliberate Practice. The most important conclusion in the book is that “no matter what industry or field you are in, the most effective way to improve your skills and abilities is to practice deliberately.” Recommend everyone to read it. The "Deliberate Practice" in the book is actually the methodology of Chinese learning, and my deliberate practice here mainly emphasizes practice. The master leads the door to practice in the individual . No matter how much guidance and help the outside world gives you, only after you digest and absorb it yourself. to be your own.
__

Although the above four conditions are all necessary conditions for the 10,000-hour rule to take effect, I think the last one is the most important, and the first three will not make any sense without the last one. That's all for today's article. If you find it useful, please like it, and if you like it, please follow it. Finally, let me ask you a question, how many hours do you think it takes to be successful in a field? 1000, 2000, 10000, or even more?