There are many interesting things about 10,000 hours of practice. Possibly the most interesting is that massive focus over time changes the brain itself (Kurzweil and Grossman in “Transcend” as well as Gladwell in “Outliers”). It seems that if you have the necessary entry level talent (height in basketball is one example) then massive practice actually builds the brain and body.

Its a fascinating subject… but as to elegance and mastery, I would simply say that Mastery creates Elegance.

Any thing else I should be reading?

You mention learning from those who know more. One less direct, but still very powerful way to do this, is to “surround yourself with mastery” simply by reading biographies of masters!

In my 30 years of fanatical martial art training, I used to devour bios of masters, Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, Floyd Patterson and non-fighters, too—cellist Pablo Casals, dancer Balanchine, and so on. Because it starts to rub off. I imbibed their attitudes via osmosis.

Now, my serious martial art days are done, but I’m carrying that same spirit into striving passionately to master writing. I’m on fire with it, pursuing it like I did fighting. (BTW, George Leonard’s book Mastery, is also superb!)

Lastly, I’ve read a couple of pieces citing research that suggests that mastery of anything boils down, funny as it seems, to 10,000 hours (20 hours per week for 10 years). According to these articles and books, this plain, homely statistic even trumps talent! Interesting possibility.

Thanks for the thought-provoking piece.