Skill Acquisition

Summary

Learning a skill — a language, an instrument, a lift, a craft — is not a matter of raw hours or talent alone: it moves through predictable stages, and *how* you structure the practice (spaced and varied rather than blocked, with feedback faded rather than constant, and protected by real sleep) reliably beats more reps done the obvious way; the two things you have most likely been told — "10,000 hours" and "sleep makes you better overnight" — are the parts that are most over-sold. ---