The 100 Hour Rule

“Above all else, the mentat must be a generalist, not a specialist. It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos.” -Frank Herbert, Dune

You’re probably familiar with the 10,000 hour rule as popularized by Malcom Gladwell in his book Outliers. Roughly stated, the rule is this:

To achieve mastery in something, it takes 10,000 hours of practice. 

(Side note: Gladwell got this number from Anders Ericsson’s research. He thinks Gladwell may have misinterpreted the research and also, it specifically should be deliberate practice, not just practice. But that’s another story.)

Unless you’re young and know exactly what you want to do, the thought of putting in 10,000 hours towards something right now, at this stage in your life, with all your responsibilities, might be a buzz kill. 

But wait, I’ve good news! Very good news!!

There’s another rule, a lesser known rule, called the 100 hour rule. Ready for it? It states:

If you spend 100 hours a year–which is 18 minutes a day–in any discipline, you’ll be better than 95% of the world, in that discipline.

100 hours = Top 5 percent?…What?!…Okay, now you’re talking.

Hopefully the 100 hour rule inspires you to take action on any new skill you’d like to acquire, or foreign language you’d like to speak, or anything you’re curious about. Don’t let time be the excuse for why you don’t get really, really good at something. Or a bunch of somethings. 

Depending on how much time you invest, in a few years, you too can be Jason Bourne.

P.S. – This blog post on why it’s a good thing to be a jack of all trades.