Perhaps that would depend on the “something”.   Learning to play guitar in 20 hours?  I don’t think so, beyond perhaps learning some simple songs.  But that might be what the speaker regards as “proficient”.

I have observed though, that teaching someone something technical can often been rather easy – but it’s when things go wrong that the experience necessary to troubleshoot comes into play.  Like computer programming.  Relatively easy to learn, clear “rules” to follow, but when those bugs appear… that’s when experience often plays a huge role!

Or to bring it to wargaming, learning DBA to a proficient level I think would be easy in 20 hours Heck; you could learn to play AND paint a whole army in 20 hours!

But learning to play ASL; that’s a work of a lifetime!

TED Talk Definitely Proves Importance of TED Talks

Depends on what you are trying to learn. Tying shoes laces, easy. Learning to fly a plane maybe not. I agree with the method, especially not getting distracted. As relating back to wargaming, I guess you can learn a set of rules in 20 hours but would you be proficient on all the nuisance and deeper strategy. I think it would take more than 20 hours to become a chess champion but learning the rules can be a few minutes.
Totally not related to this TEDx but my favourite TEDx is on the 4th phase of water. That’s worth checking out.

ian pillay wrote:

I think it would take more than 20 hours to become a chess champion but learning the rules can be a few minutes.

The speaker agrees with you.  A chess champion has mastered his skills at playing chess.  The speaker said that in order to get to master level at anything, you have to put in 10,000+ hours.  In 20 hours, you could play a solid game of chess.  You might not be the best strategist but you would be OK and would know every rule.  If you (or anyone) have not looked at the video, I encourage you to do so.   The form your opinion.

Not Connard Sage wrote:

The benchmark used to be 10,000 hours, to become proficient in any art, craft or skill. That’s about 3 hours a day for 10 years.

That’s to become an “expert”.  You are half way to expert, sir!  I expect to hear your version of EVH’s “Eruption” in 10 years!  Proficient, or maybe semi-proficient, is a mere 20 hours.  The gent in the video played the ukulele in a very entertaining fashion after 20 hours of practice!

That settles it — I’m buying a shamisen.

Who Asked This Joker wrote:

Proficient, or maybe semi-proficient, is a mere 20 hours. The gent in the video played the ukulele in a very entertaining fashion after 20 hours of practice!

I’ve been at it for 53 years. I’m still getting to grips with ‘Smoke on the Water’ 🙂

I was cruising threads, saw this and cringed.  Josh, with his personal book and on-line research, skewed it to cover a wide range of learning and tasks requiring many skills, when his research targeted learning a skill.

Even ‘deconstructing’, ‘removing distractions’ or ‘self-correcting’ a single skill are skills.  [That is what teachers are doing for students with a lesson]  He has just enough information to be dangerous, and then goes on to prove it.  There is a vast world of learning between 10,000 hours practice to gain world-class expertise in playing an instrument and simply becoming proficient at a craft or SET of skills, let alone just a single skill.

The learning research is very clear, which he smears over a whole raft of issues. For instance, to learn to play a musical instrument, you must have some concept of music. How long does it take a person to learn a new concept [‘Music’, ‘Democracy’, ‘baseball’ or ‘be considerate’] from introduction of the new idea, through practice to applying it in the real world by themselves?  Learning research says on average, 10 hours.

Alone, it takes a person about 20 hours on average to learn how to juggle three balls efficiently–a set of several skills. With a good teacher: 15-30 minutes, because the teacher has done all the ‘deconstructing’, etc. etc. etc.

It took Josh 20 ours of research and ‘deconstructing’ the skills along with practice, to learn to play one song on a ukulele with four cords. He implies that you can be proficient in speaking a language in the same amount of time at the beginning of the talk, even when putting the words ‘LEARNING A SKILL’ on the overhead.  Having taught learning research for over 30 years, as well as teaching and coaching myself, I just cringed at the kind of sloppy ‘pop’ science, misrepresentation and ‘happy thoughts’ he was selling.

Very true Ian. I’ve seen very experienced modelmakers and designers who frankly weren’t that good.

My stock reply to people claiming to have years of experience doing a job is: “That’s all very well, but are you any good?”

Ian and John:

I appreciate your skepticism, very healthy, but I would have thought you’d ask about the research I spoke of, reference to which was called ‘vague.’ [Which it was]  I gave my experience to simply establish why I would ‘cringe’ and question Josh’s conclusions at all.

Am I any good?  I taught for 15 years, at a correctional facility, then Social Science in high school and Community College. On the side during that time, I was training other teachers and Professors (UCBerkely among them) in using simulations in the class room. I designed and had several published by Simulation Games. That was the 1980s.  I then was a teacher trainer and regional executive for a national training corporation. In 1992, I formed my own company, Insights and Innovations. For the next 22 years I personally presented, designed programs, taught and trained over 600 school facilities in 20 states and Canada,  in 12 universities, 7 DOEs, with several training companies and presented at every major educational conference in the U.S. I worked with several educational labs, several teacher associations with both the AFT and NEA, as well as the Parent-Teacher Association. This is not counting those who worked with me.

Was I any good?  A value judgement to be sure, but important to me, which is why I always had end of program evaluations.  I was obviously competent enough to stay in business for more than two decades until I retired.

Best Regards,

Bill