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A gift or hard graft?

guardian.co.uk — a guardian article

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 16, 2008

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  • Asidic, on 11/16/2008, -2/+43WTF does this have to do with turntables?
  • Ruger11mcrdpi, on 11/16/2008, -1/+25So you mean a combination of actual hard-work and a little luck in timing are the keys to success? It is refreshing to have an article prove something that most believe already. Dugg +1
  • staticfish, on 11/16/2008, -9/+33Dugg because Kevin Rose is "Reading"
  • mikes, on 11/16/2008, -4/+24Very interesting.
  • leadingzero, on 11/16/2008, -2/+19Worst description ever. As a matter of fact, the title's pretty bad too. What is a "hard graft"?
  • miggyb, on 11/16/2008, -0/+11I'm sure I've spent more than 10,000 hours masturbating. Is there some sort of career I can make out of this?
  • kingmanic, on 11/16/2008, -0/+9From experience, ability to learn quickly can as often work against you as for you. I pick up things really quickly in general but I lack the dedication to apply myself because everything is easy. so I'm proficient in dozen marketable skills but not exceptional at any. I'd agree that to be the exceptional few you need both the ability to grind it out and the ability to pick things up fast. I lack the ability to grind so I just coast along comfortably.
  • leadingzero, on 11/16/2008, -4/+13Reading: http://twitter.com/kevinrose/status/1007680748
  • xenlab, on 11/16/2008, -2/+11Regardless of Kevin's tweet this sounds like its going to be Malcolm Gladwell's best book, and this article sums up the point of the book quite nicely.
  • mrspurs16, on 11/16/2008, -5/+13Kevin Rose just Tweeted... Get ready...
  • Lunchboxbeard, on 11/17/2008, -0/+8I hate how a great article like this gets less than 500 diggs while a pic of a dog in a mailbox is hot ***** for the day and a lolcat and a poop joke(paint by number toilet paper) have over 2000.
  • RobInjection, on 11/16/2008, -1/+8Kevin Rose doesn't understand the purpose of this site.
  • twoyups, on 11/16/2008, -0/+7Activities that I have spent 10,000 hours performing:

    Eating
    Pooping
    Sleeping

    Looks like I'm set for life.
  • UnterDenLinden, on 11/16/2008, -1/+8I've put 10000 hours into WoW, does that make me a genius?
  • jamesmcv, on 11/16/2008, -0/+7Hard work.
  • inactive, on 11/16/2008, -1/+7Gladwell says that people become an expert after investing 10,000 into a trade. Not necessarily successful.
  • hierophantus, on 11/16/2008, -0/+6Dugg despite the pathetic description.
  • AceDaPig, on 11/16/2008, -0/+5Nope, just an addict.
  • jvaill, on 11/16/2008, -1/+6I listened to Malcom Gladwell's other book: The Tipping Point and was already looking forward to this one... Dugg.
  • Advenger, on 11/16/2008, -0/+5This just proves that I'll never amount to anything....

    Balls.....
  • XenoSNK, on 11/16/2008, -3/+6Dugg for "a guardian article".
  • virtualball, on 11/16/2008, -1/+4Is Kevin Rose the nerd version of Opera now?
  • Informationator, on 11/16/2008, -0/+3I'm going to go ahead and peg 1986 as a "loser year".
  • PaulOwen, on 11/16/2008, -0/+3leadingzero, (and for the benefit of other non-native english speakers), hard graft is work.
  • antonio97b, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2Kevin Rose web browser!
  • elmuerte17, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2Definitely some food for thought there... kinda overturns the idea of "talented" people having it better than plain old hard-workers.
  • kevinmotel, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2i'm not saying its a bad thing. i came to this article the same away. it was merely an observation
  • Demus, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2Fluffer in gay porn?
  • jasmus, on 11/16/2008, -2/+4Description sucks. buried for not caring enough to at least copy and paste some of the article.
  • TempusEdax, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2While I don't doubt the validity of this study, I have to wonder about a particular phenomenon in human history: polymaths, or renaissance men. People like Da Vinci, Newton, Jefferson, Aquinas, Aristotle, etc. Men and women often called 'philosophers' who studied multiple fields of academia at once, or even all of them. Have we come so far in the modern world that there is no further success to be had in generalizing, instead of specializing? This isn't a question I have an answer to, but it's one that I wonder about. Is a person who spends 3000 hours learning the guitar, 2000 hours studying marine biology, 2000 hours pursuing literature and 3000 hours learning French any less of a genius than someone who spends 10,000 hours working with code?

    Personally, I hope that's not the case, but the modern world seems to be less receptive of this type of genius as time goes on, and this article is no exception. Feel free to weigh in.
  • lazydrumhead, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2I think this whole bit falls apart with people who have innate abilities to learn.

    Some people have much better memories than others, and some can pick up concepts more quickly than others.

    In the normal distribution, there are going to be a few people who possess large quantities both of those qualities, and therefore will be on some level, a 'genius.'
  • kingmanic, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2You'll have a fine career as a manual Cow milker? How about Animal husbandry?
  • nafnosseb, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1You are being a bit hard on this article. I find it so hard to stay focused on one thing consistently. These sorts of essays help remind me to keep practicing. The article did not say it was certain a genius born in 1955 would be a computer programmer. It said a person born at that time was most likely to be able to take advantage of the opportunities created by emerging technologies.
  • elmuerte17, on 11/16/2008, -1/+2aww are there too many words for you?
  • dtham, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1Damn you! Why did you have to say that? I was hoping growing up on the internet would help me amount to something :(

  • kimoftheworld, on 04/15/2009, -0/+1Sounds stoopid to me :D

    http://readingspeedcourse.com/
  • tray2, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1i came here via his tweetski
  • jaeldi, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1I can't stop laughing.
  • WoogieHauser, on 11/26/2008, -0/+1And nothing!
  • virtualball, on 11/17/2008, -0/+1LMAO! I meant Oprah hahahaha
  • ryanonfire, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1Everything!
  • Smedley42, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1Whats the point of this too long drivel?

    Useless!
  • benologist, on 11/16/2008, -1/+1Doesn't take much to keep you happy does it...
  • kevinmotel, on 11/16/2008, -7/+7before kevin rose tweeted this, it accumulated 11 diggs in 9 hours. he tweets, its triples the amount of diggs in 8 minutes.
  • Lunchboxbeard, on 11/17/2008, -0/+0What about the child who spends 10,000 hours watching television and playing guitar hero? Is he a genius?
  • topbob, on 11/16/2008, -4/+4If you tweet it, they will come.
  • xhpphxhosting, on 11/17/2008, -0/+0lol for realz
  • thetanman, on 11/16/2008, -2/+1Cool stories/backgrounds.
  • MicrosoftAccess, on 11/16/2008, -8/+7If I felt like reading for an hour, I would do my homework.
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