I published this notion already on the German part of my blog, but then would want to repeat it here for the English readers.
After seeing again and again on the Facebook, at conventions and in clubs the desire and attempts of magicians to master something and “be the best” of them all, I started to rethink the “10.000 hours of practice” myth. Practice the Center Deal for 10.0000 hours and you will be the best in the world, and so on …
I found out that recent research has proven that this myth is not so true as we thought it to be (which is good for us magicians). The “10.000 hour rule” can even be contra productive, if wrongly understood. Read this article about the myth.
Josh Kaufman explains it very well in his TedX talk, and this is of much more use for us “normal” practitioners of magic. Let’s take our standards down to a realistic level, practice the stuff that is within our reach and which is useful to us. I know from my own experience what the schedule of only 30 minutes of conscious and focussed practice a day, 5 days a week can do for you in just one month. Amazing!
Maybe it would be of help not to try to get down useless and unreachable stuff that will bring us only he recognition from the colleagues (and I know many magicians that practice certain things only for the recognition), but to focus on what is important in performing for the public. And for that, in magic at least, we surely don’t need 10.000 hours or ten years of daily hard work. But some brains, concentrated and conscious effort and the ability to distinguish.
Diving into these topics, exploring and understanding them seems to be of greater value on the long run in our developments as magicians, than constantly feeding our brains with new tricks, sleights, gossips and shows, as exhibited usually on our magic conventions and get-togehters.
I think there would be a lot more enjoyable magic out there to be watched and the individuals would be more successful, happy and recognized …