Quote:
Originally Posted by michelej1
This week I also saw Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) speaking about his new book, Outliers. In it, he expands on the neuro-scientific theory that it takes 10,000 hours to develop a skill to world-class excellence. Using Fleetwood Mac as an example, he points out that Rumours was their 16th album, not their first or second. Years and years of practice, trial and error made Rumours; not the overnight success that today's major artists are under pressure to become.
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Describes Debussy, too. And --
mutatis mutandis -- certainly Beethoven, whose sketchbooks show signs of work so concentrated & rigorous that blood stains darken some of those pages.
But then we get a Kleist or an Orson Welles, whose first two movies, both made when he was in his 20s, are masterpieces.
I can see some accuracy in this neuroscience, but I hesitate to consider it (scientific) law.