10,000 Hours, Tiger Moms, and Dabblers

Written during class - forgive the length . . .


In the last couple of months I've ridden the wave of Malcolm Gladwell, exploring Tipping Point, Outliers, and Blink. Of the three, Outliers made the most impact on me. Gladwell argues, both in Outliers and more subtly in Blink, that expertise in a given field requires 10,000 hours of work, and yields phenomenal proficiency and the ability to accurately judge in a first impression. In short, Gladwell equates success with years of hard work in a given area.


Recently Amy Chua, known as Tiger Mom, rocked the nation into a widespread debate on how to raise children. The Yale professor condemns the American standard of amusement over hard work, varied experiences over two well-developed skills (academics and violin), and inflated positive reinforcements over discipline. In other words, tiger children are in Gladwell terms the future outliers of America. They will choose specialization, not diversification. They will be the ones who know enough about the violin to in a blink of an eye stop and listen to the Joshua Bells of the world when they play in the DC metro.


However, I am not the child of a tiger mom. I am the daughter of dabblers. My father, the first self-declared dabbler I have met, HAS spent 10,000 hours mastering skills--just not the same ones. His "bettering self" hours have fallen into the many buckets of medicine, church, organ, piano, plums (yes, plums gets its own category), gardens, birds, exercise, canning, hiking, Bach, rafting, fishing, investing, and a host of other hobbies. He has traded playing the organ as a concertmaster for playing the organ proficiently AND producing plum jam for his office. Breadth, not depth, is a mantra he has passed down to me. This is not to say we are good at nothing; it is to say that we are good enough at most things--enough to find them enjoyable--and masterful at nothing (though Dr. Bassett is actually a master in medicine). In the words of father Bassett, "If not good, good enough!"
I unapologetically announce that I am a dabbler. I am so glad for the variety of experiences I have encountered in my life. I do hope to become masterful at my chosen craft, but contrary to Tiger Mom's philosophy, I believe I will be better at my craft for the dabbling I have done.
This week I told my classmate, "I'm not purely an English person." She responded, "I knew that about you from day one." I am unboxable. I have a foot in business and a foot in education, and anticipate jumping between the two over my lifetime. I hope to explore new recipes, songs, cities, and people. Sorry Tiger Mom, but I commit to 10,000 hours of dabble.