Fasolamatt passes along an interview with Malcolm Gladwell, whom we have to agree is fascinating (and with whom we once attempted to do a Q&A for the old ST Page 2, only to be very politely turned down because of a busy schedule). The whole thing is worth reading, as it predates the release of his new book “Outliers,” which we will certainly be picking up. But a few paragraphs caught the eye of Mr. Matt and us, and we thought they would be worthy of discussion. Here we go:

Can you explain why it’s no coincidence Wayne Gretzky was born in January?

Hockey players and soccer players are overwhelmingly born in the early part of the year - hugely disproportionately - and the reason is that the cutoff date for hockey and soccer around the world is Jan. 1. When people start recruiting for all-star teams and rep squads, when kids are 8 and 9 years old, they pick the kids they think are the most talented. But at that age, the most talented kids are simply the ones born closest to the cutoff date because they’re bigger and more mature. And then you give them special coaching and they play more games and they practise more, so by the time they’re 17, 18 years old, they actually are better. … Kids born in the second half of the school year also underachieve - which is why [parents] hold their kids back. What’s curious is that it persists - that you see, if you have a cutoff date for school eligibility at Jan. 1, the December-born kids are underrepresented in college admissions 15 years later. So it’s not trivial - it makes a lasting difference.

You also assert that you need 10,000 hours, or about 10 years of practice, to be a world-class expert in virtually anything.

Anything that is cognitively complex seems like it requires at least 10,000 hours. … It’s deliberate practice, so it’s focused, determined, in environments where there’s feedback, where there’s a chance to really learn from mistakes. What’s fascinating about this notion that expertise arises only after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is that it seems to apply incredibly broadly to an astonishing array of different professions - from playing chess to writing classical music to being a brain surgeon to playing hockey.

So, yeah. Discuss.

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