Here’s how much training you need to become the best in the world
Are you a specialist or a generalist? The answer can reveal something about how well you learn and master a skill
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What does it take to become the best at something? The answer may not lie in early childhood practice or lifelong laser-focused dedication. Instead, the path to becoming exceptional at a skill may seem more like a winding one.
According to a new paper, Published today in scienceswhich seeks to untangle what it takes to excel in various disciplines, from sports to chess to classical music. Somewhat counterintuitively, performers who showed the greatest promise in their discipline as children rarely reached the top of their field as adults.
The findings refute the “10,000-hour rule,” the idea that if someone spends 10,000 hours intentionally practicing a skill, they will master it, says Brooke McNamara, an assistant professor of psychology at Purdue University who co-authored the new analysis. The rule that was popular in the book outliers, Written by Malcolm Gladwell, based on A 1993 study One of the outstanding violin students. Each of these students had accumulated an average of 10,000 hours of training by the age of 20. However, they were not world-class performers, as McNamara points out.
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“Compared to their national class counterparts (those who are very good but not the best), international performers often start their discipline later,” she explains. They tend to dabble in multiple disciplines early on and do not shine at one thing at a particularly young age. “They’ve accumulated less training in their field and more practice in other specialties, and then they rise to the top relatively late,” says McNamara.
“This pattern does not follow the idea of the theory of deliberate practice or the 10,000-hour rule, which suggest that starting early and maximizing deliberate practice is the path to elite performance,” she adds.
The results came as a surprise to Zach Hambrick, co-author of the research and a psychology professor at Michigan State University. “I remember thinking: ‘This is crazy,’” he says. “I never thought about the relative benefits of training in one specialty versus training in multiple specialties. Experience is, by definition, specific.”
Most importantly, the results do not suggest that you don’t need to practice or put in the effort to become a chess grandmaster or a Wimbledon winner. Instead, they show that older adult employees tend to be “late bloomers,” says McNamara.
In sports, for example, world-class athletes reach their peak later than national-class athletes. Those who peak early achieve at a level that is best for their age but not as high as what the other group will eventually achieve at a later age.
The results are interesting, says Edson Filho, associate professor of sport, exercise and performance psychology at Boston University, who was not involved in the study. He points out that some sports, such as gymnastics, see athletes reach peak performance much earlier in their lives than others, and the analysis does not factor in other factors, such as money and training, that can influence who becomes the cream of the crop.
Research confirms that people change. Children can become overwhelmed or simply lose interest. To become an expert, he says, you must perform consistently at a high level under the most difficult conditions. “This is a long trip.”
The findings are important for institutions and coaches who may be biased toward directing resources to children who show the most promise in a particular area early on rather than those who have the greatest potential to reach world-class level. The research also has a message for people who want to pursue a skill or dream, but haven’t won their school competitions or reached the top of the youth league: Don’t give up, says McNamara.
“For people who have not followed the miracle path, know that you are in good company!” She says. “Most international artists didn’t do that either.”
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