has everyone heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book? It’s called Outliers: The story of Success.
There’s an excerpt in the Guardian which is fascinating; you ought to go read the whole thing (and check out his Pop!Tech talk, too) but here is the two-minute takeaway: when we look at people who are at the top of their game, it’s not so much that they are fantastically talented — it’s much more that they put in the time. how much time? about ten thousand hours of time, if you want to be the best of the best. (If you want to be merely good, shoot for 8,000 hours, and if you’re alright with being just north of mediocre, 4,000 hours.)
The dress above is something I would love, someday, to be able to make. (It’s the Charles James Butterfly dress, from the Chicago history Museum.) Let’s assume, whether it’s true or not, that I don’t have to be a staggering 10K-hour rocket scientist to make it, but could skate by on merely 8K hours of practice. how far am I from being able to make this dress?
I’ve probably attached an average of 15 hours a month for the past twenty-five years, in some cases a little more, and in some cases a lot less. but let’s take 15 hours a month as average. 15 x 12 x 25 is 4,500 hours, putting me just above mediocre … which, to be honest, is best where I would say my own sewing skillset is (and those of you who keep pointing out — rightly — that I ought to match my patterns better will agree!). but if I keep sewing at this rate, or, better yet, crank it up a bit more, I could be at Charles James dress level in another decade or so — which certainly worth trying for, right?
TEN THOUSAND hours may sound a bit frightening, but to me (since I’m practically halfway there!) it sounds fantastically encouraging. To hear that I don’t have to have some ineffable pixie-dust sprinkle of magic called talent or genius or knack to make the kinds of dresses I dream of — all I have to do is keep AT IT? and that this notion is backed by Science? how terrific is that?
I’m also going to be much more generous from now on in what I call “practice.” reading sewing blogs & magazines and seeing new techniques? Practice. Hanging out in the fabric store? Practice. Idly googling “Callot Soeurs”? Practice. These next 5,500 hours are going to FLY by, I tell you!
So … what do you want to be terrific at? how fast can you get to 10,000 hours? I’ll wait while you do the math.
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