WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN EXPERT?

Just about every project I work on requires at least one late night of work. At this point, it’s become my little ritual where I don’t stop working until about 3 or 4 in the morning. It takes me back to my early days as a design major. Often, during these late-night sessions, I find myself reminiscing about all kinds of things. This time, I started thinking about how many hours I had poured into this project. That thought led me to wonder just how many hours I had invested in honing my skills.

See, at one point, my biggest goal was to log 10,000 hours of graphic design work. Why 10,000? Well, years before I became a graphic design major or even had any real interest in what I do now, I watched a TED Talk in high school. In which, the speaker talked about dedication and passion, explaining how those who are truly great at what they do put in the time to get there. He mentioned legends like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and said that to become an expert in anything, you need to put in 10,000 hours.

It sounded like such a large amount of time. But in reality, it equates to 1 year, 1 month, and 21 days.

As a new design student, I told myself that once I hit 10,000 hours, I’d be an expert. I wanted to achieve this goal as fast as possible. To prove to myself and to everyone else that I belonged in the world of design. So, I stayed up late, grinding away on class assignments until 1, 2, sometimes 3 a.m. I spent every spare moment working, even lingering in my teachers’ classrooms until they left for the day.

It got to the point where I would stay up just staring at my artwork, not even doing anything productive. Trying to squeeze in another minute or second, anything to get me closer to 10,000 hours. I put immense pressure on myself to become an expert as fast as possible. This mindset carried me through my entire undergraduate career.

As I reflected on this past goal of mine, I realized something: It’s been almost seven years since I graduated, and I have long surpassed 10,000 hours. But was I an expert? If so, when did it happen? On what day did I cross that threshold? And why didn’t I celebrate? No balloons, no party, nothing.

By this time, I had stepped away from what I was working on. I had a revelation that there is no magic number, no definitive benchmark that makes someone an expert or great. It’s not about the number of hours but about how that time is spent.

Looking back, I’m not sure if there was any benefit to staying up, nodding off, half-asleep, just to tack on a few more seconds. But there was value in the drive I had, and still have, to be great at my craft. Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan didn’t stop once they hit a certain number of practice hours. They kept pushing forward. Maybe that’s the real measure of expertise, the continuous pursuit of greatness and improvement.

Even as I write this post, it’s not the number 10,000 that has kept me up all those nights, from college to now. It’s my love for design and my hunger to be great. That number sounds cool, sure, and I can see why the speaker used it. It’s tangible, something that feels within reach but still demands dedication.

That number was the speakers' way to illustrate the importance of passion and persistence. I have no idea how many hours I’ve logged at this point, nor do I want to do that math.