Dan McLaughlin documents his attempt to reach 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and become a professional golfer, starting with no golf experience.
HN cites it as a real test of the 10,000-hour rule; commenters note it stalled after a back injury and the author stopped posting in 2015.
It’s even more specific than that: it’s deliberate practice. Going to the driving range, getting a bucket, and hitting a bunch of balls likely doesn’t count. You need to be focusing on improving a specific thing. Are you working on your swing path, club face angle, hip rotation, etc? Or are you just hitting balls?
I was fascinated by The Dan Plan. He went from having never played golf to a 3.1 handicap, but ultimately injury appears to have stopped him after ~6000 hours.
>On April 5th, 2010, Dan quit his day job as a commercial photographer and began The Dan Plan. Having never played 18 holes of golf in his life, Dan started the 10,000 hour journey with just a putter. After five months of putting, he received his second club, a pitching wedge. Just before the first anniversary of The Dan Plan dan took his first full-swing lesson. After 18 months he swung a driver for the first time. On December 28, 2011 he played his first full round with a full set of clubs. Since then it has been off to the races.
http://thedanplan.com/about/
I find this principle wrong, based on what I've heard experienced couches say
Maybe less time on couches and more time with coaches would change your perspective?
With that said, there is a guy, Dan, who is testing this theory with golf. We still have a few more years to see if it works.
http://thedanplan.com/
"Remember when you were in first grade, try to remember your classmates, what percentage of them could have become Nobel Prize winners in Physics given the right nurturing conditions?". According to the author of this book, almost all of them
I haven't read the book, but have read articles. I thought the goal was "expert level", not Nobel Prize level. There's a pretty big gap between being a Chem expert and winning the Nobel prize in it.
An interesting implementation of the 'learn X in Y years/hours' concept is here: http://thedanplan.com.
"It’s a project in transformation. An experiment in potential and possibilities. Through 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice,” Dan, who currently has minimal golf experience, plans on becoming a professional golfer. But the plan isn’t really about golf: through this process, Dan hopes to prove to himself and others that it’s never too late to start a new pursuit in life."
After 3 years/4000 hours, he's at a 5 handicap after starting from nothing.
Someone tried that - see http://thedanplan.com/ - it turns out that you can become good, but expert / world class level takes more than dedicated practice.
The truth is that the people who do not have the aptitude to start wash out before they reach 10,000 hours, making this a self-reinforcing belief. That said, you can always become better, and you have the opportunity to define your own rules such that you can become recognized in something in which is suited to you.
So, what is your goal?
I recommend reading the (ongoing) story of Dan:
WHAT IS THE DAN PLAN?
It’s a project in transformation. An experiment in potential and possibilities. Through 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice,” Dan, who currently has minimal golf experience, plans on becoming a professional golfer. But the plan isn’t really about golf: through this process, Dan hopes to prove to himself and others that it’s never too late to start a new pursuit in life.
http://thedanplan.com/blog/
The 10,000 hour thing is about mastery. Is someone who spent ten weeks learning about organic chemistry able to operate on the same level as someone who has been working in the field for decades? I suspect the answer is no.
Anyone can learn how to play golf in just a few minutes, but what does it take to become a PGA-level player? The theory is that it only takes 10,000 hours of focused practice and it is currently being put to the test: http://thedanplan.com/