The Expert Myth
Why Hacker News recommends it
Frequently recommended in threads on learning, the 10,000 hours rule and deliberate practice as a clearer account of how expertise develops.
What it is
Veritasium examines which experts have real expertise, drawing on chess research and work by Klein and Kahneman. It explains that expertise comes from pattern recognition built through deliberate practice in valid, feedback-rich environments.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2022 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec Zensynthium · 2022-10 · on “Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?”
Derek from Veritasium had a pretty good video on becoming an expert in anything and I didn't see age as a blocking factor. I'd say go for it! Also check out the video here, it's worth a watch [this video]
Strong rec angarg12 · 2023-07 · on “Learning needs to be effortful to be effective”
Deliberate practice is a well studied phenomenon. My favourite talk in the subject is this one from Veritasium [this video]
Strong rec lolinder · 2024-12 · on “Learn perfect pitch in 15 years”
It's absolutely pseudoscience. 10k hours doing what ? And why would we expect to see an approximately equal amount of time to achieve expertise across so many different human endeavors? Veritasium has a really good video on the subject [0], with a much more compelling explanation for what it takes to develop expertise. He comes up with 4 things, but the two that stood out the most to me are that the field needs to be deterministic—the more randomness is involved the less expertise is possible—and that the learner needs consistent and accurate feedback on what they get right and wrong. Absent those factors no number of hours will do you any good. [0] [this video]
Recommends ourmandave · 2022-10 · on “Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?”
The youtuber Veritasium recently did a video on the 10,000 hour expert. Summary: you need 4 things to become an expert. From comment with timestamps: 5:00 Repeated attempts with feedback. 6:47 Valid environment. 11:23 Timely feedback. 13:50 Don't get to comfortable. Video link: [this video] Comment link: [this video]
Recommends somenameforme · 2023-03 · on “How to Start a Rocket Engine”
I'd also add this standard. Another amazing YouTuber is Veritasium. He went from [1] to [2]. The production quality is more than slightly improved, but the "spirit" remains identical. And I think that spirit is what drives success or failure. The production quality is just icing. [1] - [LINK] [2] - [this video]
Recommends swframe2 · 2024-02 · on “Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?”
The Veritasium youtube channel has a few interesting videos related to this topic: This one is on IQ: [LINK] Pay attention to the stats on how IQ correlates to success (near the end). This one is about becoming an expert: [this video] This one is about someone who just worked harder than everyone else: [LINK]
Cites manholio · 2022-08 · on “Against Discipline”
"Vision" is what happens in your brain after you grind 10,000 hours on a skill that is improvable: [this video] At that point, you no longer have to grind, because your brain has hardwired decision paths that are automatic and produce correct results for extremely complex problems like "is this character likeable and understandable by the reader", and you can effortlessly add a few high value paragraphs to their backstory. But it's foolhardy to think that level of "flow" can be achieved out of thin air, without writing hundreds of characters before them, re-reading them, getting feedback from other readers, studying other briliant authors with a eye for their technique etc.
Cites lathiat · 2022-09 · on “Multitasking, something we copied from computers”
Sounds a bit like “System 1/System 2” thinking. can definitely drive and listen to a podcast when you’re good at it. [this video]