OT: 10,000 hours

[Art Simon <simart@gmail.com>]

I just read Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers", and it makes a
convincing argument that there really is no such thing as a prodigy,
and it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice to become great,
whether you are talking about music or computer programming. The
author cites the examples of the Beatles and Mozart. I was having a
hard time trying to come up with musical counter examples, maybe Tod
Dockstader? Even "anti-musicians" like Alvin Lucier and Brian Eno
certainly put in the time developing their chops. I'm pretty convinced
that there really is something to this, and that practice is the most
important part of developing as a musician or a composer.

I'm curious if anyone else has heard this hypothesis and might have an 
opinion.
-- 
Art Simon
simart@gmail.com
myspace [dot] com/artsimon