Quoted from Duvall:According to "Outliers" (Gladwell), proficiency in anything is a result of practice.
“Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
“In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
And this one is my favorite - discussing analysis of artists that make 1st Chair:
“Once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And what's more, the people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
So, 10,000 hours of pinball?
I was reading something recently about how a lot of the people who study this kind of thing think "Outliers" and the 10,000 hours rule is nonsense. Their argument is that it's not about just putting in the time, it's about putting in the time while maintaining a disciplined focus on learning and improving. What keeps most people from becoming "true experts" has less to do with being unwilling to put in the time, and more to do with being unable (or unwilling) to stay focused enough to benefit from the time they put in. You don't become a great three-point shooter in the NBA just by practicing your shot over and over again, you do it by being able to learn a little bit from each one you take.
I think that's very much related to why a lot of people in this thread have said that concentration is the most important thing that separates top players from everyone else.