The Dan Plan

I've been somewhat interestedly following the guy who is very literally putting this to the test by attempting to become a professional golfer after 10,000 hours of practice, having never played a round of golf before he started. He's about halfway through his hours now and has shot a round of 70. See here: http://thedanplan.com/

Someone tried that - see http://thedanplan.com/ - it turns out that you can become good, but expert / world class level takes more than dedicated practice. The truth is that the people who do not have the aptitude to start wash out before they reach 10,000 hours, making this a self-reinforcing belief. That said, you can always become better, and you have the opportunity to define your own rules such that you can become recognized in something in which is suited to you. So, what is your goal?

That’s quite the non-central example. Gamesmanship, cheating and being the only San Marinan or Guamian able and willing to represent their country in some sport excepted do you think a normal person is capable of becoming conpetitive at an élite level in most sports? It didn’t work for Dan McLaughlin when he tried to go from nothing to pro in golf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_McLaughlin_(golfer) http://thedanplan.com/

Your mention of deliberate practice prompted me reinvestigate the guy who was doing the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become a golf pro. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, he did get to 10,000 hours, but it doesn't seem like it panned out. Anyone have further sources of information? http://thedanplan.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_McLaughlin_(golfer)

you're thinking of this guy: http://thedanplan.com/ basically he was going to reach his 10k hour goal next month (Oct 2016) but back in Nov 2015 he had to take a hiatus due to a back injury. Not sure what has happened since he hasn't posted since Nov 2015.

Related is The Dan Plan in which a chap is trying to become a pro golfer by dedicating 10,000 hours to it (from zero experience) [1]. I seem to recall it was after Malcolm Gladwell claimed that it takes that long to achieve mastery in a discipline. Dan's almost at the 5 year mark now. I check back a couple of times a year to see how he's getting on. [1] http://www.thedanplan.com

This is the only person I know who is testing it empirically: http://thedanplan.com/

Thanks for the link, I love checking up on his progress from time to time. Small note, he seems to have downgraded his goals though from "winning a PGA tournament" [1] to "obtaining PGA tour card" [2]. Understandably, since the former would be incredible hard, but still... [1] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/dan-mclaughlins-10000hour-plan-be… [2] http://thedanplan.com/about/

I'm surprised he didn't mention http://thedanplan.com/ which is a guy doing the experiment. Its not clear to me that we can ascertain the validity or not of this conjecture with simple experiments though.

He is about half there in terms of time and is getting pretty good. http://thedanplan.com/

I think Dan would disagree. http://thedanplan.com/ Dan has specifically stated he had no natural interest in golf and had played it less than a handful of times in his life.

An interesting implementation of the 'learn X in Y years/hours' concept is here: http://thedanplan.com. "It’s a project in transformation. An experiment in potential and possibilities. Through 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice,” Dan, who currently has minimal golf experience, plans on becoming a professional golfer. But the plan isn’t really about golf: through this process, Dan hopes to prove to himself and others that it’s never too late to start a new pursuit in life." After 3 years/4000 hours, he's at a 5 handicap after starting from nothing.

The 10,000 hour thing is about mastery. Is someone who spent ten weeks learning about organic chemistry able to operate on the same level as someone who has been working in the field for decades? I suspect the answer is no. Anyone can learn how to play golf in just a few minutes, but what does it take to become a PGA-level player? The theory is that it only takes 10,000 hours of focused practice and it is currently being put to the test: http://thedanplan.com/

I'm a fan of the Dan Plan. Pretty cool idea. You should check it out: http://thedanplan.com/

http://thedanplan.com/ where there's a blog, regularly posted videos, etc. Current status (I just looked): 2 years in, 2700 hours done, and he just shot his first sub-80 round of golf.

Slightly off-topic, but an interesting example testing out the idea of it taking 10,000 hours to become an expert is http://thedanplan.com/. Dan is trying to become a professional golfer and as of this month he's about 2,300 hours in.

I recommend reading the (ongoing) story of Dan: WHAT IS THE DAN PLAN? It’s a project in transformation. An experiment in potential and possibilities. Through 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice,” Dan, who currently has minimal golf experience, plans on becoming a professional golfer. But the plan isn’t really about golf: through this process, Dan hopes to prove to himself and others that it’s never too late to start a new pursuit in life. http://thedanplan.com/blog/

I find this principle wrong, based on what I've heard experienced couches say Maybe less time on couches and more time with coaches would change your perspective? With that said, there is a guy, Dan, who is testing this theory with golf. We still have a few more years to see if it works. http://thedanplan.com/ "Remember when you were in first grade, try to remember your classmates, what percentage of them could have become Nobel Prize winners in Physics given the right nurturing conditions?". According to the author of this book, almost all of them I haven't read the book, but have read articles. I thought the goal was "expert level", not Nobel Prize level. There's a pretty big gap between being a Chem expert and winning the Nobel prize in it.

You got me to look up the Dan Plan guy, and it looks like he is steadily progressing. http://thedanplan.com/statistics-2/ Don't know much about golf, but looks like his handicap is still on a consistent downward progression after well over 5,000 hours towards his goal.

Anyone remember "The Dan Plan"? http://thedanplan.com/a-summary-of-the-dan-plan/ A guy (30-year-old photographer) who never really played golf before is trying to reach the PGA Tour through 10k hours and deliberate practice. (ie, Not just mindlessly spending time on the driving/putting range). In the last four years he's practiced about 5500 hours and gone to a handicap of 3.3.

I have been lurking on HN for five years, almost daily, and I haven't seen this before. It's still good. Reminded me to check in on http://thedanplan.com/statistics-2/

This guys [0] is trying this with gold. He should hit 10.000 hours at December 2016. I read about it a year or two ago and put it into my calendar. http://thedanplan.com/about/

It looks like he's been stalled in the 5.5 - 6.0 handicap range for the past year. http://thedanplan.com/statistics-2/ Michael Jordan, on the other hand, reached a 3 handicap in far fewer hours while still playing basketball professionally. Talent matters.

Dan has been working for 3 years now toward completing 10,000 hours of practice with the goal of getting into the PGA - http://thedanplan.com/about/

It’s even more specific than that: it’s deliberate practice. Going to the driving range, getting a bucket, and hitting a bunch of balls likely doesn’t count. You need to be focusing on improving a specific thing. Are you working on your swing path, club face angle, hip rotation, etc? Or are you just hitting balls? I was fascinated by The Dan Plan. He went from having never played golf to a 3.1 handicap, but ultimately injury appears to have stopped him after ~6000 hours. >On April 5th, 2010, Dan quit his day job as a commercial photographer and began The Dan Plan. Having never played 18 holes of golf in his life, Dan started the 10,000 hour journey with just a putter. After five months of putting, he received his second club, a pitching wedge. Just before the first anniversary of The Dan Plan dan took his first full-swing lesson. After 18 months he swung a driver for the first time. On December 28, 2011 he played his first full round with a full set of clubs. Since then it has been off to the races. http://thedanplan.com/about/

More info here: http://thedanplan.com/countdown/