This is the important part:

[elfs]

Josh Kaufmann's The First 20 Hours is a pretty good book, but he quotes from another book that really tells the whole story in three paragaphs. Once you know how to learn, this is what you need to know:

A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an A, forty pounds a B, and so on. Those being graded on “quality,” however, needed to produce only one pot—albeit a perfect one—to get an A.

Well, come grading time a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work and learning from their mistakes, the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Now, go forth, do good work.

Comments

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

May I share this on my LJ? Because it pertains to an argument I'm in with several fellow writers.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

It really does come down to 10,000 hours, doesn't it? Well, and a willingness to *learn* from at least some of those hours.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

No, actually, it comes down to 20 hours. 100 hours. 10,000 hours. You just have to be willing to work deliberately. Talent is a ceiling, not a floor. Break it down to (a) skill acquisition, (b) refinement, and (c) expression, and decide how good you want to be, and do it.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Oh, feel free!

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Thank you.