Comments on: Practice – Not Genius – Makes Perfect http://adistantsoil.com/2009/02/02/practice-not-genius-makes-perfect/ The Official Website of A Distant Soil, the legendary graphic novel series from Image Comics. Mon, 21 May 2012 07:52:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Comics Links: Quick Hits | A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran http://adistantsoil.com/2009/02/02/practice-not-genius-makes-perfect/#comment-3704 Comics Links: Quick Hits | A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:05:09 +0000 http://adistantsoil.com/?p=657#comment-3704 [...] Practice, Not Genius, Makes Perfect: The results were clear-cut, with little room for any sort of inscrutable God-given talent. The elite musicians had simply practiced far more than the others. “That’s been replicated for all sorts of things — chess players and athletes, dart players,” says Ericsson. “The only striking difference between experts and amateurs is in this capability to deliberately practice.” The group even determined the number of hours musicians must play to compete at the highest professional level — about 10,000, the equivalent of practicing four hours a day, every day, for almost seven years. [...] [...] Practice, Not Genius, Makes Perfect: The results were clear-cut, with little room for any sort of inscrutable God-given talent. The elite musicians had simply practiced far more than the others. “That’s been replicated for all sorts of things — chess players and athletes, dart players,” says Ericsson. “The only striking difference between experts and amateurs is in this capability to deliberately practice.” The group even determined the number of hours musicians must play to compete at the highest professional level — about 10,000, the equivalent of practicing four hours a day, every day, for almost seven years. [...]

]]> By: Colleen http://adistantsoil.com/2009/02/02/practice-not-genius-makes-perfect/#comment-3583 Colleen Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:20:38 +0000 http://adistantsoil.com/?p=657#comment-3583 I'm so glad you found this post and that is resonated for you, Aurora. And thanks SO MUCH for joining in! I've always thought talent was overrated. I've seen way too many very talented people waste it. While I do believe that talent exists, I define it simply as a natural propensity to excel in a given area. I don't think that has much to do with success (either spiritually or materially). And it has always annoyed me that those who have had access to time, money and education forget that there are many late bloomers who had none of these advantages. I've always attributed my early success to a supportive family that had no objection to my spending 40 or more hours a week after school doing nothing but read, writing, and drawing. Most kids just aren't going to do that. Adult responsibilities thwart many ambitions. The time we all ahd to pursue our interests when we were kids in school is no more whne we grow up and have to make a living. IMHO, the reason some people have trouble pursuing an art career after college age is not the lack of talent or drive, but the lack of time and resources to practice and focus. A lot of people have drive. But they also have to eat and keep a roof over our heads. I’m so glad you found this post and that is resonated for you, Aurora. And thanks SO MUCH for joining in!

I’ve always thought talent was overrated. I’ve seen way too many very talented people waste it.

While I do believe that talent exists, I define it simply as a natural propensity to excel in a given area. I don’t think that has much to do with success (either spiritually or materially). And it has always annoyed me that those who have had access to time, money and education forget that there are many late bloomers who had none of these advantages.

I’ve always attributed my early success to a supportive family that had no objection to my spending 40 or more hours a week after school doing nothing but read, writing, and drawing. Most kids just aren’t going to do that.

Adult responsibilities thwart many ambitions. The time we all ahd to pursue our interests when we were kids in school is no more whne we grow up and have to make a living.

IMHO, the reason some people have trouble pursuing an art career after college age is not the lack of talent or drive, but the lack of time and resources to practice and focus.

A lot of people have drive. But they also have to eat and keep a roof over our heads.

]]> By: Arlnee http://adistantsoil.com/2009/02/02/practice-not-genius-makes-perfect/#comment-3580 Arlnee Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:53:24 +0000 http://adistantsoil.com/?p=657#comment-3580 I've never heard of the 100,000 hour rule. I have heard the old saw that once you've written a million words of prose, then you can consider yourself a writer. Then again, the person that told me this had a habit of taking everything I ever began with "I have this idea for..." and doing one of her own and then slapping me with the "ideas aren't copyrightable" plank. Took awhile for the light to come on to not talk to her. (and to this day she has maybe three or four short story sales and papers her wall with rejection slips and blames her lack of success on the white straight male cabal of sabotaging her career :roll: whereas I blame my lack of major success to my own sheer laziness :-D ) I’ve never heard of the 100,000 hour rule. I have heard the old saw that once you’ve written a million words of prose, then you can consider yourself a writer.

Then again, the person that told me this had a habit of taking everything I ever began with “I have this idea for…” and doing one of her own and then slapping me with the “ideas aren’t copyrightable” plank. Took awhile for the light to come on to not talk to her.

(and to this day she has maybe three or four short story sales and papers her wall with rejection slips and blames her lack of success on the white straight male cabal of sabotaging her career :roll:

whereas I blame my lack of major success to my own sheer laziness :-D )

]]> By: AuroraDragonKaya http://adistantsoil.com/2009/02/02/practice-not-genius-makes-perfect/#comment-3577 AuroraDragonKaya Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:22:44 +0000 http://adistantsoil.com/?p=657#comment-3577 You know, I just discovered this webcomic recently, and during reading it, got distracted by your many posts. I've read several, but this is the first one I felt the really strong desire to post on, because its something that's long been a pet peeve of mine. I always found myself really annoyed when someone made a comment like 'I could never draw like that,' or 'you have natural talent,' etc, because it belittles the work put into it. And I haven't even been working again until very recently, definitely not nearly as much as I should.. ...and it shows. My own comic was actually a wonderful example--I saw great growth when I was updating twice a week, then various problems came up, personal and impersonal, and where I had completed well over a hundred pages in a year, the next year was barely twenty. (It was when I saw that that I realized something needed to change, but that's another story for another time) I could see it in my work, too. I stopped improving, which is something that horrified me but that's completely expected. Great artists aren't born great artists. They study, and practice, and work hard.. ..and somehow, saying that they are 'born speshul,' just seems to belittle that work. That's just my opinion, of course. ^^; But seeing the numbers like that actually helps. Now I have a goal for myself, and a reasonable one at that. All I have to do is vary it enough and force myself to do the parts I hate most. ...anyway, sorry for rambling (what a long first post) but its something I've felt so strongly before, I had to say it. On another note, I'm still just beginning, but I'm quite enjoying the comic. The art is utterly beautiful. When I read that you first started writing it at 12, I admit I was weary, but I've been quite pleasantly surprised so far, and I imagine I shall continue to be as I slowly tackle the archives. Thank you for sharing the comic, and all your advice, columns etc, and sorry for the rambly post! ^^ You know, I just discovered this webcomic recently, and during reading it, got distracted by your many posts. I’ve read several, but this is the first one I felt the really strong desire to post on, because its something that’s long been a pet peeve of mine.
I always found myself really annoyed when someone made a comment like ‘I could never draw like that,’ or ‘you have natural talent,’ etc, because it belittles the work put into it.
And I haven’t even been working again until very recently, definitely not nearly as much as I should.. …and it shows. My own comic was actually a wonderful example–I saw great growth when I was updating twice a week, then various problems came up, personal and impersonal, and where I had completed well over a hundred pages in a year, the next year was barely twenty. (It was when I saw that that I realized something needed to change, but that’s another story for another time)
I could see it in my work, too. I stopped improving, which is something that horrified me but that’s completely expected.

Great artists aren’t born great artists. They study, and practice, and work hard.. ..and somehow, saying that they are ‘born speshul,’ just seems to belittle that work.

That’s just my opinion, of course. ^^;

But seeing the numbers like that actually helps. Now I have a goal for myself, and a reasonable one at that.
All I have to do is vary it enough and force myself to do the parts I hate most.

…anyway, sorry for rambling (what a long first post) but its something I’ve felt so strongly before, I had to say it.

On another note, I’m still just beginning, but I’m quite enjoying the comic. The art is utterly beautiful. When I read that you first started writing it at 12, I admit I was weary, but I’ve been quite pleasantly surprised so far, and I imagine I shall continue to be as I slowly tackle the archives.

Thank you for sharing the comic, and all your advice, columns etc, and sorry for the rambly post! ^^

]]> By: VT http://adistantsoil.com/2009/02/02/practice-not-genius-makes-perfect/#comment-309 VT Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:32:32 +0000 http://adistantsoil.com/?p=657#comment-309 I was talking with a friend of mine who's a musician about <a href="http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/outliers_excerpt1.html" rel="nofollow"> Malcolm Gladwell's book, <i>Outliers</i>, and the 10,000 hour rule.</a> We both were wondering: at which point in time had we hit 10,000 hours in our fields? Our back-of-the-envelope calculation: roughly 5 years of 40-hour weeks. So using that as a rough gauge to see how much longer it'd take me to hit 10,000 hours of drawing… with my existing commitments (ah, day job, I love you), I've been putting in 20ish hours a week for six years… which leaves me four more years to go. Not impossible, but seriously disheartening. I was talking with a friend of mine who’s a musician about Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, and the 10,000 hour rule. We both were wondering: at which point in time had we hit 10,000 hours in our fields? Our back-of-the-envelope calculation: roughly 5 years of 40-hour weeks.

So using that as a rough gauge to see how much longer it’d take me to hit 10,000 hours of drawing… with my existing commitments (ah, day job, I love you), I’ve been putting in 20ish hours a week for six years… which leaves me four more years to go. Not impossible, but seriously disheartening.

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