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Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

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Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#51

Post by itsoktocry »

tgv wrote: post #15

My opinion: * The 10000 hour rule is nonsense. There are skills that require very much practice, and a lot of those are unattainable for most people. You could practice 10,000 hours on the violin or playing chess without reaching the lofty heights of Hahn or Magnusson. That does require some kind of "talent". * Many other skills can be acquired in much less time, certainly if you don't start from scratch. E.g., learn…

>The 10000 hour rule is nonsense

You should probably read a bit about the "rule" before calling it nonsense.

It's vague, flexible, and refers to attaining mastery in some skill. Nowhere is it implied you'll be a world champion chess player after 10,000 hours.

It says practice will make you better at something. That's hard to dismiss.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#52

Post by sure_about_that »

29athrowaway wrote: post #34
tgv wrote: post #15

My opinion: * The 10000 hour rule is nonsense. There are skills that require very much practice, and a lot of those are unattainable for most people. You could practice 10,000 hours on the violin or playing chess without reaching the lofty heights of Hahn or Magnusson. That does require some kind of "talent". * Many other skills can be acquired in much less time, certainly if you don't start from scratch. E.g., learn…

10,000 hours of chess as a kid is different to 10,000 as an adult.

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Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#53

Post by jacek »

1. Gladwell has a difficult relationship with truth and reality. 10,000h rule is utter nonsense and has been debunked many times since.

2. You don't need to master anything to switch careers. You just need to be useful and productive. Many employers will value your experience, work ethic, knowledge and will trust you to learn on the go.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#54

Post by petercooper »

I know this is just one person who was in a different time and under different circumstances, but I've found it inspirational to put age into perspective.

Grace Hopper first entered computing at age 38, completed the first compiler at age 46, influenced the design of COBOL at age 53, wrote COBOL for the Navy through her 70s, retired from the Navy aged 80 and only then became a consultant for DEC. So for me, at least, I reckon I can keep going in my 40s.. :-)

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#55

Post by throwaway0asd »

I have spent far more time programming than I have in management, roughly 25 years in near full time versus 18 years part time. I now have the confidence to refactor people/departments the way I do functional programming. I am not sure how close to 10000 hours either of those skills are.

If I had the freedom to start over right now (also 43) I would get into experimental horticulture. I think there are a lot of missed opportunities to improve macronutrient quality and water resource management with lower pesticide requirements for commercial agricultural in developing economies that wealthier economies frequently ignore.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#56

Post by ergonaught »

1) The first bit of advice is to recognize that you, like almost everyone else who discusses "the 10,000 hour rule" (and what it means regarding "practice" and "mastery") have completely failed to understand what the actual author meant, so you do yourself and everyone else a favor by dropping the subject.

2) The second bit of advice is to examine this "reality" thing. You can, obviously, switch careers anytime you want. Only you can define what "success" in that career will mean for you, what investments will be required in order to achieve it, whether you will enjoy the process, whether you are asking the impossible of reality (a very short, sedentary, middle aged person just isn't going to switch into the "Professional NBA Superstar" career), and so on.

3) Your life expectancy is, what, roughly 80 years now? You've spent maybe 20 or so on your current career. You've got twice that remaining, theoretically, and you're concerned about time having run out already?

All this is a roundabout way of saying your own attitudes toward all of this are the main, though not the only, challenge you'll need to address provided you are not asking to violate physiology/etc.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#57

Post by smeej »

43 years old is only as limiting as you believe it to be. There are plenty of people who are experiencing the most fruitful, expansive, creative time of their lives at that age, and they're not "special" in some way you aren't.

If you tell yourself you're too old to make a change or learn new things, you'll find it harder to make a change and learn new things.

If you tell yourself you're going to meet challenges, as everybody does, but you're better equipped to solve them now than you ever have been, you'll be able to handle whatever comes your way.

I'm not always a "mindset is everything" person, but when it comes to believing you can or can't do something really important to you that's well within the scope of what ordinary people do all the time (i.e., you're unlikely to be able to pivot to an elite athletics role), believing you can do it too makes a big difference.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#58

Post by adamgordonbell »

There are so many follow up books about the subject, you could read one of them and learn more. Anders Ericsson, the source of the rule, has a popular science book called "Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise" but also "Talent is Overrated" is a great book on the subject.

The problem though is all these books are about well understood domains with a pedagogical framework you can grind thru. There is nobody saying this works in a field like 'entrepreneurship'.

All the evidence is in things like chess or playing the violin where the path is well worn and a coach or mentor can keep you on the right path.

In those fields, yes, deliberate practise works.

https://www.amazon.ca/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise-ebo...

https://www.amazon.ca/Talent-Overrated-Separates-World-Class...

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#60

Post by jaffee »

Depends what you want out of life and what career you're moving to... you can become pretty competent in a career in tech in just a few years and it will likely become lucrative pretty quickly. I feel that there will likely be increasing demand for programmers/engineers for decades to come. Check out Steve Yegge's youtube show for thoughts on this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8332hz8c2s&list=PLZfuUWMTtM...
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