Wednesday, November 12, 2008

10,000 hours ?

I was reading the New York Times this week, and ran across an article (which of course, I can no longer find) that suggested that to achieve "mastery" in any area, you needed to put in 10,000 hours, or about 10 years of practice at three hours a day, to become an expert at something. Which got me to thinking - how far am I into my 10,000 stitching hours? And does 10,000 hours just qualify me as a cross-stitch expert, or is it a general stitching or needlecraft expert?

Curious minds want to know.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I'm not sure I'll ever achieve mastery in anything except perhaps *sleeping* and *internet-ing* :D

Stitchingranny said...

Well I have been stitching for over 10 years but have i put in 3 hours a day every day. I doubt it maybe 4 or 5 on some days but there have been lots of days when there has been no stitching or only half an hour or so. Maybe I will be a master of mky craft in another 10 years or so lol.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... I've been stitching nearly every day for about 4 years now, so I guess I have a ways to go :)

I'm sure I'd qualify for computer usage, though!

Kathy A. said...

Hmmm - Im sure I've put in more than 10000 hours but I certainly don't consider myself an expert. I love the beads you did for you PIF - they are gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

This post got me super curious. I didn't find the NYT article, but I found out it's by Malcom Gladwell, promoting his new book, Outliers.

I never considered myself a master of cross-stitch before. Now I know why! :o) I'm a master of enjoying it, that's for sure. I've probably racked up 10,000 hours of *thinking* about stitching.