[nawhead]

I've just read this book called Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. In a nutshell, it's an analysis of successful people from all walks of life from a liberal perspective. It puts forth a theory of great individual success as aided significantly by culture and timing and especially luck.

That's the book review. But I don't want to debate on the validity of the book.

What I found most intriguing was sort of an aside that the author goes into while explaining some of the success stories. A general number that researchers have come to to define someone as the title of "expert." 10,000 hours. Or about 3 hours a day, almost every day, over 10 years. The author goes into detail about how these assorted people don't achieve their stride or greatness until they've have their 10,000 hours in. There are no exceptions. Even Mozart, who we think of as a child prodigy, needed about 10,000 hours before he started putting out his masterpieces.

So I started to think about my poker progress. How dedicated have I been in my studies and my productive play? Not just screwing around, but really trying to play with the intent of gettting better? I came to the number of about 2,000 hours over 3 years. In about 8-9 more years, I might actually become a good poker player.

When I'm full of gray hairs, maybe I'll be grinding a middle class living playing 10-20 or 20-40 at a casino somewhere. I think it's very possible. I know it's possible. I know I'm smart enough and I'm disciplined enough. I really believe I can do it. I don't think I'll be the next Phil Galfond or Brian Townsend, but I really believe I can make a living at this.

How many hours do you have in?