Learning & talent
How long to get good?
"10,000 hours" is famous and mostly useless, because nobody tells you what that means on a calendar. Set your real weekly practice and see how long each level actually takes. The honest answer is usually "sooner than mastery, later than you hoped."
- Not-terrible20 hrs—
Past the worst of the beginner pain.
- Hobbyist100 hrs—
Comfortable doing it for fun.
- Competent500 hrs—
Reliably useful to others.
- Job-ready1,000 hrs—
Could be paid for this.
- Expert5,000 hrs—
Among the better people you know at it.
- Mastery10,000 hrs—
World-class, if the practice was deliberate.