I'm just going to jump in and burst the bubble; the 10,000 hour rule is a myth. It's grounded in a good idea, which is that time and effort usually yield improvement, but the idea that anything can be mastered in 10k hours, or that conversely, with 10k hours you can master anything, is - at best - a theory. I do think that everyone has one or two 'skills' (or lack of skills, really) that they are probably not going to achieve excellence in, regardless of how much time and effort they put in.
Just to caveat what i said, my main thing with the "10,000 hours" mantra is that practice is important. I don't believe for a second that 10,000 hours is some magic number where people become an expert in something. To me it's that unattainable goal that just means "practice a lot, and you'll get better". It's the high level view of the theory that is important, not taking it literally. Of course it's not meant to be taken literally. At least, taking it literally wasn't what I intended to imply here, was just trying to make my point that practice and "doing" is the most important thing for me and many others. So I agree the theory is flawed, but it's never been a theory I've taken seriously. I just like the idea beyond the theory that it focuses on practice and doing.but the idea that anything can be mastered in 10k hours, or that conversely, with 10k hours you can master anything, is - at best - a theory.
That makes sense! I actually secretly hate Malcolm Gladwell and had recently been reading about how he propagated the 10k hour rule, as well his lack of any sort of evidence besides personal experience, for it, so that's why I came down a little harsh if it seemed I did. And also why I took you to mean it so literally, because Gladwell certainly seems to. Ugh.
That's true, a good family friend and I talked about this very thing. He's a seriously good guitar player and has been playing for about 50 years. While he really enjoys playing guitar, for the past 25 years he's been playing the fiddle too. However, he's nowhere near as good at the fiddle as he is at guitar and according to him, he's tried everything and he practices constantly. No matter what he tries, that's as good as he's going to get at the fiddle, according to him. I'm interested in what people's experiences are though, since there are times when dogged persistence has paid off. I'm also wondering if people have noticed the wall they've hit and taken the experience they've gained by not improving in one area and applied it successfully in another area.