I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, talk about Fleetwood Mac, the theory that it takes you ten thousand hours of practice to become accomplished at any complex task, and on the nature of creativity. It was fascinating.
At the end of his talk Gladwell is asked what lessons we should take from the idea of ten thousand hours and he says that “the things we do should be approached with a degree of seriousness and dignity”. It made me think about editing, which I’ve been doing since 1990. I guess I’ve spent 10,000 hours at it by now, though I may only be approaching that. I don’t claim any particular proficiency for myself – I only started seriously considering editing a career for me last year – but the idea that it should be approached with seriousness and dignity resonated. I think it’s a worthwhile task, I enjoy it, and I like the challenge of becoming professional at it.
