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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?

#71

Post by michaelcao »

petercooper wrote: post #54

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…

he's a genious. I live in Viet Nam and the unemployment benefit is not good so I'm cautious to switch career. That's why i founded a company and be a founder and CEO as a part time job.

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

#72

Post by danesparza »

Short answer is yes.

My wife is an RN. She went to nursing school in her 40's and became a nurse.

I have a coworker who was a teacher in their 20's, went to school again, and is now a software developer.

I have a coworker who as a Civil engineer, went to school again and is also a software developer.

It can be done.

What will you do with your one wild and precious life?

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

#73

Post by sam1r »

Rather then measure expertise with practice (subjective), I feel like it’s much more productive to measure it with time spent (objective, hence 10k hours) on it.

Time spent feels much less stressful than “I’ve practiced heavily regularly”.

Since humans inevitably improve with repetitions or practice, it’s less scary (for me or imo) to just “put in time” versus “practice” to get possibly better or intimidated by what’s “enough expertise”

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

#75

Post by danesparza »

itsoktocry wrote: post #51
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.

Agreed. Bobby Fisher got there in less than 10 years.

https://problogservice.com/2012/03/15/what-malcolm-gladwell-...

The problem is, Gladwell never said you needed 10,000 hours to be an expert, you need 10,000 hours to be a phenom. To be so freakishly awesome, to be such a standout among your peers, that sometimes your first name is enough to tell people who you are: Peyton. Tiger. Venus. Kobe. Oprah.

But in the meantime, here’s what Malcolm Gladwell said about the 10,000 hour rule and being an outlier:

“In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers (violinists) had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice.” — p. 38

“The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin. — p. 40

“To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.” — p. 41

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

#76

Post by mattjaynes »

petercooper wrote: post #54

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…

And to continue the Grace Hopper example... Remember that she transitioned to computing from being a Mathematics professor at Yale, so she was able to leverage her previous training into the new career.

Try and do the same if you can. Leverage what skills you've already gained to switch into a career where they are a big advantage. Then you are starting nearer to those already in the field, not the beginning.

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

#77

Post by alexfromapex »

Just do it. I'm planning to switch jobs from Software Engineer to General Contractor, just working on saving up capital for heavy equipment and materials. I took a great training course and now just have to pass the licensing exam. If your passion changes, just change fields, life is short.

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

#78

Post by someweirdperson »

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.

10k hours as an adult in violin is not the same as 10k hours at chess.

Nor is the same at a young age, but possibly differenly not the same.

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

#80

Post by mromanuk »

petercooper wrote: post #54

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…

Thank you, didn't know about her.
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