My 10,000 Hours

You know the oft-cited number of 10,000? As in, it takes 10,000 hours for someone to be really good at [insert thing here].

Well, I decided to try a little experiment on myself.

This Christmas, we brought back the electronic piano my Mom bought for me when I went to college. It's been collecting dust for the better part of 10 years now.

So, we set up the piano in our dining room (it's big, we only have one small table in the dining room--so it fits fine) and I started practicing, seriously, for the first time in ten years.

I found that I was really enjoying it.

So, I thought: "It would be great if I could get really good at piano." Then that 10,000 hour number popped into my head. So, I thought, let's see where I am in 10,000 hours. (I also thought, this would be a good way to keep me motivated, since there are no piano recitals to prepare for, or parents to make me practice.)

So, I just opened up Open Office spreadsheet and did a little calculation. I estimated that I could spend 46 weeks out of the year, practicing 7 hours/day (this would allow for 4 weeks of vacation, plus one week for Christmas and one week for Thanksgiving). I figure that the regular variation due to work-related travel would work itself out: for example, I practiced for 2 hours one day, not one. You get the gist.

I figured that as a younger student, I probably put in about 1,380 hours. I previously studied piano for about 10 years, but not in a very disciplined fashion (I figured 3 hours per week for 46 weeks a year, just to be conservative).

So, I added that to the 5 hours I practiced last week. Looks like I'll be a genius in about 27 years!

I'll keep you posted on progress. Here's the spreadsheet I mentioned:


Matt's 10,000 Hours
Date Hours Minutes
01/12/11 1 20
01/13/11 45
01/14/11 20
01/15/11 2
01/16/11 30







Total Hours to date 1384.92 Estimated hours during previous study 1380
Hours To Go 8615.08 (46 weeks per year, 3 hours/week practice, for 10 years)
Years to Go 26.75