Outliers
BY: Malcolm Gladwell
Better To Be Lucky Than Good
In the video Malcolm Gladwell talks about the minimum amount of time needed to master an area. He calls it the "10,000 hour rule", meaning that once you put a 10,000 hours of work into an area then you can call yourself an expert in that area. Bill Gates has put 10,000 hours into computers starting at the age of 13 and it took him 10 years to reach 10,000 hours. The Beatles have also put 10,000 hours into their music. They got their start by performing in Germany accumulating 10,000 hours of live shows. I can compare this to my life because I am trying to master the game. If I need to put in 10,000 hours of work in to be considered a master then I have a lot of work to do. I started playing youth baseball at seven years old and have continued playing. Throughout the time I have accumulated about 2,300 hours put into baseball. This doesn't count the many hours hitting in the cage with an instructor or going on the field outside a game or practice and throwing with a friend. It also doesn't count the many hours put in at the gym getting ready to play.
Bill Gates
Co-Founder of Microsoft
The Beatles
Music Group
Malcolm Gladwell
Author of Outliers
Is being young really a disadvantage?
In the book, Gladwell explains how elite Canadian hockey players are usually born in the beginning of each calender year because they play in the same age group with players born at the end of the same year. The older players have an advantage over the younger players because they are usually more physically and mentally mature than the younger ones. This is the same for me because in baseball you play with your grade and I am young for my grade, having a July birth date. It can be considered for me to have a disadvantage for me to be younger but I don't use that as an excuse to not do well in my sport.