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Ten years to develop expertise

December 11, 2006 by in Geeky,Random with 1 Comment

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years illustrates that fact that expertise in any field requires a good ten years. The secret is garnering sufficient interest, talking with other experienced individuals, and “learning by doing” among others.

Researchers (Hayes, Bloom) have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. There appear to be no real shortcuts: even Mozart, who was a musical prodigy at age 4, took 13 more years before he began to produce world-class music.

Personally, I too agree that true expertise in any field requires a significant length of time. Unless, of course, the individual boasting expertise is a 14 yr. old college graduate, there is no such thing as a 7-day crash course expert (who managed to briskly skim through & understand the 400-pg. book from B&N).

Thoughts on the matter of expertise requiring years on end of hands on experience, learning, and trial & error? Who out there can honestly boast about being an expert in their field?


  • chad

    expertise cannot be taught from a book or in a class room, its not an over night cram session and its not something you can buy.

    I learned how to use PHP and mySQL in a crash course manner to develop a fast custom CMS solution for a friend in need. To this day … it works… its not nearly as versatile, scalable, or well written as my latest work but it works. I personally find myself getting better with time, the more I’m pushed out of my comfort level the better I become because I’m forced to learn or sink. Back in the olden days before you went into a trade you would be an apprentice for MANY years. The same still stands for today, whether your teacher is a book and a lot of experimentation, or real world position, or a mentor guiding your processes like fine wine (or bourbon), we all only get better with time when it comes to a cognitive skill ;).

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