J.D. Moyer

sci-fi author, beatmaker

Tag: YouTube

10K Hours is B.S.

By

On August 27

In Metaprogramming

As I get a bit older, and the number of activities I have spent ten thousand or more hours practicing increases, I’ve come to the realization that just doing the thing is not enough to get really good. Malcom Gladwell’s observation that the world’s best in every category have accumulated at least ten thousand of practice in their field is just that–an observation. Ten thousand hours of practice may correlate with elite mastery, but it doesn’t cause elite mastery. You need more.

Like many of Gladwell’s big ideas, this one has been refuted many times. The most recent research shows that hours of practice are only loosely associated with mastery. Those with natural talent (and/or good teachers and/or a good study plan) progress much faster that those who focus solely on grinding out the practice hours.

I have at least two natural talents, and I have practiced both very little. One is thinking in abstract data models. From the moment I was exposed to databases, I “got” them. I managed to turn this talent into a part-time career that pays most of my bills. I still had to put in the hours learning to code, but the mental models always came easily.

My other natural talent is that people believe me, without question, based on the sound of my voice. It’s weird. I’ve never practiced it at all. It drives my wife crazy, especially when I happen to be wrong.

In other life areas I’d like very much to be good, but I’m only mediocre. Like chess. I watch chess videos, solve puzzles, play many games, but struggle to break 1000 ELO on chess.com. I’m still in the top 20% of players on the site, but I’ll never be elite. Still, I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made. It’s sweeter because it’s hard earned.

For me, I’ve decided that it’s worth it to try to get better in areas that interest me, even if I’m not naturally talented. It’s exciting to make progress, to devise a study plan and follow it. And access to knowledge, lessons, and expertise has never been easier, thanks to the internet and YouTube. Thanks, Youtubers who take the time to teach others. You rock!

Humbled by the Masters (on YouTube)

By

On May 8

In Creative Work/Career, Culture Rants/Shares

The amount of high-level knowledge and technique being casually shared on YouTube, TikTok, and blogs is absolutely stunning. The world is collectively experiencing a Golden Age of accelerated learning with no geographic, economic, class, or age-related limitations. Anyone with a mobile phone can learn from the most talented people in their field, for free.

Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of human cultural evolution. Anybody who wants to can raise their game in a small fraction of the time it would have taken ten or twenty years ago.

The first time my mind was blown by this fact was maybe five years ago. The pipes in my house were making a weird loud vibrating sound. After a quick internet search I found a helpful guy on YouTube demonstrating exactly how to adjust the water pressure in your house. I ventured into the crawlspace under my house, found the valve, and make the adjustment. Problem solved.

But now I’m all about raising my art game. Yesterday I was completely humbled not once but twice, in two different fields. I watched Ian Kirkpatrick break down his drums on Dua Lipa – Pretty Please. I’ve been making beats for three decades, with a fair amount of success, but I found at least a dozen tips I could immediately implement from this one video. Multi-platinum-selling producers are willing to tell you exactly how they do it, for free.

Another one of my nerdy hobbies is painting fantasy miniatures. I’ve been painting off-and-on since I was a teenager, but resources for learning how to paint were scarce when I first started. I remember getting some very basic tips from a booklet that came with a paint set, and that was all I had for many years. It wasn’t until I started watching artists on YouTube that I really started to gain some technique. Watching extremely skilled painters like Miniac, Ninjon, Lyla Mev, and Squidmar is truly inspiring. But yesterday I discovered a painter on another level entirely. Watching Marco Frison speed paint a miniature using only three primary colors and black and white, exhibiting his color theory genius while mixing and blending on a wet palette — it blew my mind. It was almost too much. I felt overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of knowledge being dropped. But having slept on it, I’m excited to actually try some of Marco’s methods, even though my own first attempts will be clumsy.

For learning how to write better, YouTube isn’t the perfect medium. But I have read life-changing blog posts that have bettered not only my writing technique, but also my productivity. For example Rachel Aron’s breakdown of how she consistently writes up to 10k words per day. While I generally only write for a couple hours in the morning and average between 600-1000 words per day, I’ve used her advice to easily ramp it up to 2-3k per day when I want or need to.

It’s such a better situation than learning this stuff on your own by trial-and-error. Or paying tuition or course fees and slowly gaining knowledge from a small handful of individuals who may not even be that talented. I’m not knocking other forms of learning — you can’t replace working with a skilled teacher in person, or practicing with others and getting immediate feedback. But if you’re not also partaking of the free knowledge the masters are handing out for free, you’re missing out.

In conclusion, Sean O’Malley breaks down his signature jab. So that’s how he hits people as if his hands were invisible.

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