10,000 Hours All to Do.......

     When asked to pick just one thing to devote 10,000 hours to, many typical answers come to mind.  I immediately thought of becoming a world renown pianist or an amazing theatrical actress; one who brings the curtain down on a New York City theater; maybe even a dancer who everyone wanted to emulate. However, when I allowed myself to take a closer look into the question, I found myself thinking much deeper into what surrounded it.  I agreed with Gladwell when he stated that greatness requires an enormous amount of time.  I also noticed another key factor in that each of the examples he used in the chapter brought to light a practiced skill that was new and exciting to the world at that time.  So to resort to a very average answer, I could not do.  If I were to become an "expert" and devote 10,000 hours, it would to become a human lie detector.  
     More so now than ever we as a society run from the truth at almost any cost.  Wouldn't it be not only great, but helpful to have someone that could tell who was lying just from looking?  It would be a skill that would be helpful on all levels across the world.  After all, everybody lies, some more than others, and some lies cause irreversible damage.  Take for instance the current political race.  It has become so hard to tell what is true, what is false, and more importantly who is telling what?  This "honed" skill would benefit everyone that is voting for the improvement of our country and eliminate those who were not telling the truth.  Lie detection would stop wasting all of our times with nonsense.  How did we ever get so far from, "Thou shall not tell a lie"?  
     In becoming this surveyor of falsehood, one has to think of how to practice that.  I have always been a good judge of character which according to Gladwell, this "natural" talent is due to the fact of what environment I was put in from early on.  In racking up 10,000 hours I would need to study the physical body and its gestures along with verbal cues, emotional gestures, contradictions, a persons reactions and interactions, content and context; all of which may indicate someone is lying.  Along with studying the human body I would then have to "happen" to study with psychologists or police as they are the most knowledgeable in the field so far.  After that, one of those important psychologists or policemen would let me interview some of the most talented liars and learn from them. All leading up to 10,000 hours equaling myself as an "expert" in lying.   
     This "expert" status is a nice theory in thought, just like Gladwell's rule., however I don't think it could ever be achieved.  This powerful knowledge of being able to spot a lie would be useful for everyone and every day in any situation; from a cheating boyfriend to being able to punish the right child for writing in crayon on the wall, it would even mean a correction to our legal system.  Alas, sometimes ignorance is bliss.  When you are able to spot a lie at first sight, gaining that knowledge may hurt when it is obvious that someone you love is lying to you.  At that instance, it might seem like you just wasted 10,000 hours.  

Response to Gladwell

          After reading, "The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell, what immediately caught my attention was the brief reading from the New Testament; Matthew and what that meant.  I believe that Matthew meant that we should use what God has given you to the best of your ability and to honor him and your gifts will be multiplied.  If you do not use them, your gifts could be taken away.  This is an interesting excerpt to accompany this reading because I believe that society's definition of success as a result of hard work and dedication is completely contradicted.  Success is simply dependant on timing, and those who seize that gift of timing.  He uses the example of the Canadian hockey players and how those that were born close to the cutoff date of January 1st were then given special opportunities.  Those that were "lucky enough" then received the best coaches, more practice time and were able to hone their skills at a much higher level.  Simply by being born at a more "opportune" time benefited these young boys and catapulted them into a league of their own, a greater chance of success.  I am not saying that these kids did not put forth the dedication and hard work needed to be successful, however, I will say that the advantages that they were privy to does playa bigger role in their success.  

            Furthering this thought of timing, and how important it is, we need to take a look at how this affects students on the academic level.  Speaking from personal experience, I was one of those children that was unfortunately born at the end of August.  My parents chose to start me into school as the youngest of my class.  They thought that getting a “heads start” would eventually help me in the future.  According to Gladwell, this put me immediately at a disadvantage.  I now find myself questioning how something as simple as when I was born had a domino effect on how the rest of my life then played out in correlation with success.  Was that decision of being the youngest in my class the reason that I didn’t finish college right after high school? Would I have been more successful at an early age if I would have been stayed behind and been the oldest in my class? Was I immediately disqualified for the formula of success-good grades+good college+good job=good life?  Gladwell stated that even the disadvantages of starting early would eventually even out with the ones that started at the right time, and again from personal experience I can say, I always felt like I was behind in all aspects and no matter how hard I worked I would never catch up. 

            This interesting concept of timing shakes up the theory of success.  The children that were born at the right time of the year are not better, nor do they have that “special gift”.  They are simply given special treatment to help further them along in the hopes of maturing their skills.  I do agree with Gladwell and believe that we as  a society need to take another look at how we pedistal these kids that are born at a certain time.  We focus so much on that, that we could be over looking many young talents that are just as deserving.  In honor of this being Sunday and watching football, I’d like to end on this.  Tom Brady went to the University of Michigan and was seventh on the depth chart, he struggled to catch the attentions of the coaches; he even sought out a psychologist to help with the frustration and anxiety.  He ended up having a successful career his last two years but only went on to be the 199^th pick in the NFL draft.  Brady was to be the New England Patriots fourth string quarterback.  If it wasn’t for his hard work and dedication to be successful; Tom Brady wouldn’t have even been a name.  His birthday is August 3.  Kind of makes you wonder……..

Hi English class.....Looking forward to a great semester!