It takes 10 years to become proficient at anything: (Source)

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. In another genre, the Beatles seemed to burst onto the scene with a string of #1 hits and an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. But they had been playing small clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg since 1957, and while they had mass appeal early on, their first great critical success, Sgt. Peppers, was released in 1967. Samuel Johnson thought it took longer than ten years: "Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." And Chaucer complained "the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."
Posted by roy on October 2, 2006 at 11:56 AM in Ramblings | 4 Comments

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Comment posted on October 3rd, 2006 at 06:44 PM
I started drinking at age sixteen... even allowing the maturation period, I've been an artiste for the last six years?

(there is no pride ot be had in this pursuit; and yet, I'm still proud.)
Comment posted on October 3rd, 2006 at 04:03 PM
Which is why my golf game sucks!
Comment posted on October 3rd, 2006 at 10:20 AM
i still say the beatles clocked in early. rubber soul being their first great album.

so when is rykorp going public?
Comment posted on October 3rd, 2006 at 06:28 AM
I read the same thing in the book "Creating Minds". How once the craft is at its peak, the person will generate a body of great work once every ten years or so. And if you look at Freud, Einstein, and others, this theory proves true. So basically, you should be hitting your breakthrough pretty soon.