14.2. The Nature of Expertise
True expertise, as contrasted with competence, takes about ten years to develop. Of course, history provides some examples of true inborn genius, but even chess prodigy Bobby Fischer required nine years of intense preparation to become a true expert. Even the most gifted must practice, practice, practice: there are no expert-to-novice mind-melds to short-circuit the process. This is not to say that anyone can develop expertise through diligence; rather, between two people of equal natural ability, the one who becomes more expert is the one who engages in the activity more, be it music composition or law or entrepreneurship. Expertise is developed through learning-by-doing.
Second, experts make decisions largely ...
Get Leading for Innovation: And Organizing for Results now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
