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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?

#221

Post by nsxwolf »

Silverback_VII wrote: post #195
WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t significantly change my advice and was actually already factored in my answer. Your obligations are your own. If you can’t afford to change, that answers the question. It’s not about empathy. My point is that inherently there are no advices to be had on life choices. Just do what you want to do, decide to try or decide you don’t want to. There are no right and wrong general answers here. A bunch of strange…

>If you can’t afford to change, that answers the question. In my personal experience the greatest challenge is always oneself and not external factors. So your advice to drop all self-help is wrong in my opinion. There are people who made it against all odds and their mindset may crave the necesseary pathways in your brain as well. I would even say that the more the odds are stacked against you the more you should tr…

"Sorry son, you're going to have to quit hockey because dad is having a midlife crisis and is going to switch careers"

Is the problem here the external factor of my son's desires? Or is it a problem with myself, putting his desires above my own?

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

#222

Post by Art9681 »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #152
WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #86

In my admittedly still short life, I have started to notice something: you can broadly divide the world into two groups - those who do things and those who keep wondering if they should have done things. So for what’s worth, here is my advice to you: drop Gladwell and self-help books, if you want to and can switch to a new job, do it. Should it work or fail, you will have experienced trying. If you don’t feel like it…

I agree with some points of it. However, some people (loosely correlated with age but not strictly) have more unavoidable responsibilities than others. For a very prosaic example, a person without mortgage and kids, all other things equal will have inherently less responsibilities than one with mortgage and kids (while both still have options in principle). Empathy is a massive skill I've been learning late in life;…

In my experience, being blunt without the sugar coat can have a massive change on people as well. Having a mortgage and kids can be seen as a reason or excuse not to embark on change/risk but it could also be seen as a great reason to do so. We decide how we want to look at it. The old saying "actions speak louder than words" will outlive any self-help new age fad. No one cares what was said or what was thought, but what was done.

"I judge myself by my intentions but I judge you by your actions".

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

#223

Post by [deleted] »

huimang wrote: post #204
scifibestfi wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (ie the Beatles example is complete bullshit, gigs are not practice) Why doesn't that count as practice?

Performances aren't practice. Practice is sitting down and working on what needs development, and doing self-introspection. Performances are where all of those get put together for an audience.

[deleted]

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

#224

Post by dexterdog »

michaelcao wrote: post #155
daveevad wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite Gladwell book to rip on is Blink. It is 296 pages long and the main point was one only needs a few moments to understand complicated things.

I haven't read the Blink yet. I will try to read it in the near future. Thanks for mentioning it.

I think he was making the opposite recommendation.

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

#225

Post by dexterdog »

michaelcao wrote: post #154
just_boost_it wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gladwell's english was very approachable, so outliers was an easy and enjoyable book to read. I even believed it the first time I read it. Once I read his later stuff though, I noticed a couple of things that didn't quite add up for me, and that sort of shone a light for me on the pattern he was using. I wouldn't put any more weight on his work now than I would on a random blog from the depths of the internet.

He's a genius writer and we should be aware of that when reading his books. He could influence us. I think that 10000 hours means that long-term. No shortcut for master anything.

I would not call him a genius writer by any stretch. The sheer number of people who consider him a complete fraud part of that reason. The rest is that I've seen enough of his material that didn't add up for me.

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

#226

Post by Art9681 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #221
Silverback_VII wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you can’t afford to change, that answers the question. In my personal experience the greatest challenge is always oneself and not external factors. So your advice to drop all self-help is wrong in my opinion. There are people who made it against all odds and their mindset may crave the necesseary pathways in your brain as well. I would even say that the more the odds are stacked against you the more you should tr…

"Sorry son, you're going to have to quit hockey because dad is having a midlife crisis and is going to switch careers" Is the problem here the external factor of my son's desires? Or is it a problem with myself, putting his desires above my own?

The culture of dad having a mid life crisis being frowned upon and only seen as a means to provide for the family by placing their desires above his own could be why soccer son often ends up beng raised by single mom. Dad needs help and soccer is the most irrelevant thing in the world right now.

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

#227

Post by iancmceachern »

Do what you want. You don't owe it to thr world to master your new thing. You just have to be good enough at it to get by. If you spend your remaining working years doing something you want, but perhaps at not the same level of performance as your last role, that's ok.

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

#228

Post by insane_dreamer »

projektfu wrote: post #115
YawningAngel wrote: post #4

I think the answer is "yes", but you should be aware that Malcolm Gladwell is a bullshitter. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/the-dan-p... https://archive.ph/yPd3R

Yes, but is he a talented bullshitter or an accomplished one?

both

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

#229

Post by nsxwolf »

Art9681 wrote: post #226
nsxwolf wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Sorry son, you're going to have to quit hockey because dad is having a midlife crisis and is going to switch careers" Is the problem here the external factor of my son's desires? Or is it a problem with myself, putting his desires above my own?

The culture of dad having a mid life crisis being frowned upon and only seen as a means to provide for the family by placing their desires above his own could be why soccer son often ends up beng raised by single mom. Dad needs help and soccer is the most irrelevant thing in the world right now.

I find the notion incredibly selfish. My family is accustomed to their lifestyle. There are certain realities that can occur that would require a reduction in that lifestyle, but I should not deliberately cause them to happen.

Sometimes the right thing to do is to sacrifice your dreams for others.

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

#230

Post by iainctduncan »

MrsPeaches wrote: post #186
adamgordonbell wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's Gladwell himself: There is a lot of confusion about the 10,000 rule that I talk about in Outliers. Practice isn't a SUFFICIENT condition for success. I could play chess for 100 years and I'll never be a grandmaster. The point is simply that natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest. Unfortunately, sometimes complex ideas get oversimplified in translation. I don't get why p…

> He never said it was either necessary (lots of music prodigies are world class in way less) Gladwell: "The point is simply that natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest" (emphasis added)

But... this is wrong. The vast majority of the time, yes, but "requires" is a simplification. The amount of work required is massively variable and Gladwell skates right over that nuance. Prodigies exist! I've met some, they can be really nauseating to the rest of us, lol. There are more of them out there than you would think because they are often so screwed up in other ways that they don't become famous. Talk to anyone who has taught hundreds of music students and they can tell you some crazy stories. However, prodigies aren't much use if you can't count on them showing up to the gig. (Some savants are fortunate enough to get the support they need to function professionally, but many aren't)
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