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When you discuss the route to excellence the question of genetics, or natural talent, comes up. Is 10,000 by itself enough to reach the top level?
As with most things it is probably a combination of having some set amount of natural talent, with an open question of how much depending on what domain of interest you are pursuing, and putting in the required long term deep practice.
I found a very nice post discussing these issues at sports are 80% mental. In this case, as you would guessed based on the blog’s name, they are concentrating on the pursuit of sports excellence, but the same points brought up would apply to other endeavors.
They talk about Anders Ericsson, the main pioneer in this field.
I do think that Ericsson’s work is being somewhat oversimplified in that he, and others in this field, realize that there are obvious and necessary interactions between genetic predisposition, “deliberate practice”, and even “opportunity” or circumstance.
Then there is this question and answer that gets to the heart of the issue:
DP: So, do genetics play any role in sports success?
PV: My short answer is yes, to varying extents, they do. But, as before, I do not believe that genetics are necessarily an absolute limiter of exceptional performances. “Skill” is developed, not from basic physical or cognitive attributes or from some magical quality (“a gift”), but from sustained, effortful, and effective practice complemented with meaningful, well-timed, and actionable feedback.
Check out the rest of the piece to get the full picture.
The bottom line is for many pursuits we do not know if we have the right genetics, the raw talent, (with sports possibly easier to tell than most other domains), and you will not know if you can reach the level you hoping to unless you put in the dedicated deep practice on a consistent enough basis.
