Nature or nurture?

In Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book “Outliers”, he posits the theory that for someone to truly become amazing at something they need to put 10000 hours into their craft. Now when I say truly amazing I mean world class, revolutionary or simply the best of the best. I’m certainly not going to disagree with the amazing Mr Gladwell as his examples show it to be true (he uses case studies such as Bill Gates) but it brings me to another interesting thought: should we push our children to put in the 10000 hours on an activity they might be vaguely interested in or let them develop on their own?

The numbers are quite astounding when you do the maths. If you practice something for three hours a day, seven days a week it will take you just over a year and a third to reach the 10000 hour milestone. While it’s a fairly daunting amount of time it’s not exactly that long especially for a young child whom has plenty of extra hours to spare.

So this brings me to my original question: should we push children to succeed in areas we choose? Would Tiger Woods have wanted to be a golfer had his father not made him put in the requisite hours required? As a person that has occasionally been pushed in the wrong direction or the direction not of my own choosing I’m obviously blantantly against this concept. However, what if the child had some vague interest in become, for example, a world class guitarist? Even if you made the child practice one hour a day, seven days a week the 10000 hours could be reached in less than four years.

I’m not sure what the answer is to be honest. It’s an interesting thought whether we should push our children to reach those 10000 hours in a discipline of our choice or one of their own later on in life. I’m not saying it’s the worst idea to push your children in a direction but I think it shouldn’t be purely to reach the 10000 hour milestone or for other reasons. I guess it’s different for every children but my vote is ultimately for nature even if it means you will blossom later in life.

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