how much time to become an expert?

I was doing some reading tonight for school and stumbled across a line of thinking that got ME thinking… namely, the author of one of the articles I was reading was asserting the notion that, to become very adept and/or expert in basically *anything*, you need to have been doing it for at least ten years. He used the example of the expert chess player or the piano virtuouso.

It really made me think… on the one hand, a decade of experience certainly gives you uncommon familiarity with something; on the other, does excellence necessarily follow experience?

What do you think?

By the way, as an aside, I’ve learned over the years that I tend to do my best concentration in studying if I’m in a highly controlled environment without many interruptions. Unfortunately — in so many ways — I rarely find the library to be a controlled-enough environment; there are WAY too many distractions there. For that reason, I generally find going somewhere to eat for an hour or two provides the right mix of control over my environment and, apart from overeager servers, very few interruptions. Since Daniel’s now in school two nights a week, I’ve been working on making a habit of going somewhere both those nights to get some serious reading done.

Faithful LizBlog readers may well remember entries over the life of this blog relating stories of these sorts of eating/reading adventures … but in a change, I’d like to point out three that have proven MOST fruitful:

1) Fox & Hound, 75 & Campbell, Richardson — it’s loud without being obnoxious, and everyone there is distracted. The servers are too busy to bug me much. In short, it’s *perfect*. Plus, I love Fox & Hound. 🙂

2) Cheddar’s, 75 & Park, Plano — it’s much quieter there, but the food is reasonably priced (IMO) and the booths are comfy. The lighting’s good, too.

3) Poor Richard’s Cafe, K Avenue & Park, Plano — this is where I’d lose Daniel, if he were voting. Poor Richard’s specializes in “home cookin’,” which ranks high up there on my list. I love going there for breakfast … the serve breakfast like my mom would, and it’s fabulous (this coming from the woman who generally avoids traditional breakfast foods).

I went there tonight for dinner, which they only recently began serving and which they serve “family style.” Basically, that means for anywhere from $9-$11, you get all-you-can-eat salad, rolls, green beans, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, and red beans along with the entree of your choice. If you have a big (certainly a bigger-than-one) crowd, they bring out all the sides in bowls that you can pass around the table.

The food at Poor Richard’s might not be spectacular, but it is (I’ve found) consistently good and consistently well priced. The people are super-friendly and the atmosphere is extremely nonassuming and comfortable. It was an ideal place to read otherwise boring stuff tonight, and you can bet I’ll definitely be back there again soon with my mountains and mountains of reading.

{/restaurant reviews (for now) }

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