Do Ten Times as Much

“Do ten times as much” norm, you are in for some soul-searching. If you want to learn a foreign language, you need to budget about two thousand hours. If you want to master a technical subject, you need to budget about five thousand hours. If you want your kids to be pious Orthodox Jews, move to an Orthodox neighborhood, send them to Orthodox schoo... See more

Cold emailing ten times as many successful people in your field for advice is easy in a world where most people do so once in a lifetime. Never underestimate your fellow man’s lack of initiative.

How does fluency happen? First and foremost, people who attain fluency practice a lot more than the typical foreign language student. “A lot” doesn’t mean 10% more, 25% more, or even 100% more. People who attain fluency practice about ten times as much as the typical person who is officially “learning a foreign language.” Sure, the quality of pract... See more

Still, once you internalize the “Do ten times as much” norm, you are in for some soul-searching. If you want to learn a foreign language, you need to budget about two thousand hours. If you want to master a technical subject, you need to budget about five thousand hours. If you want your kids to be pious Orthodox Jews, move to an Orthodox neighborh... See more