This idea — that excel­lence at a com­plex task requires a crit­ical, min­imum level of prac­tice — sur­faces again and again in stud­ies of expert­ise. In fact, research­ers have settled on what they believe is a magic num­ber for true expert­ise: 10,000 hours.

This extract from Mal­colm Gladwell’s next book, Out­liers invest­ig­ates what it takes to become the best. In short, it appears to be tal­ent, drive, time, prac­tice — and a massive amount of luck.