TEDx Talks
5 HN recommenders · recommended in 10 months, 2014–2024
19:27 · 44M views · Mar 14, 2013
Josh Kaufman's TEDx talk argues that you can reach practical competence in almost any skill with about 20 hours of focused practice, rather than the 10,000 hours often quoted. He describes how becoming a parent led him to rethink how adults learn, and lays out a short method for rapid skill acquisition.
HN uses it as the standard counterpoint to the 10,000-hour rule and as an encouraging recipe for starting new skills.
11 comments from Hacker News
The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything by Josh Kaufman - this video You can be a top 10% in any given field with this. 20 hrs is worth the effort on skills you want to learn. My personal advice - Learn only if you put that skill into use immediatly for your good or for the greater good of the society around you. Growth for the sake of growth is the mindset of a virus
How about 20 hours? this video The 10k hours thing is based on how long it took athletes to become the very top of their field. The very top of their highly specific, highly competitive field. It doesnt even mean becoming an 'expert' (whatever that means), let alone just being good at it. Anyway, check the TED Talk above, 20 hours to proficiency.
Reminds me of the book "The First 20 Hours" by Josh Kaufman. He gives examples of skills that you can learn fairly well in 20 hours. One of them is programming. I have some issues with the book but overall it's a fun read. Here's a TED talk he gave which lead me to buy the book: this video
It might be a good idea to add a meta section with resources on learning to learn. Books would be stuff like "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning", "The first 20 hours", "The Talent Code", "Inner Game of Tennis" etc. Link to a cool TED-talk (20 hours): this video :)
I remember watching a video about learning a skill in 20 hours. The topic boils down to 4 points that seems fairly straight forward. I can't do it good justice myself so here is a link to those 4 points: [LINK] And here is the video itself: this video