a dress a day?

A reader, Stephen, sent in this link "A Dress A Day" with an article about Malcolm Gladwell's book called Outliers: The Story of Success, and his suggestion that it can take 10,000 hours to master something. I think that would be relative to the starting aptitude and ability to pay attention to what you are doing and having sufficient role models to challenge you with continuously advancing targets for growth. Of course the point is that: "Hey, folks, if you want to do something, it may not be all that easy."

A bit of quick math... Forty hours a week times 50 weeks per year times 5 years equals mastery? It certainly depends on lots of other factors, and for one fully engaged in learning, there are no limits. How do you really know when mastery is reached?

Today I found a new way to make wheels as I prepare for our annual toy making project. It involves the use of a lathe chuck mounted to the drill press table, which precisely centers the wheel on the drill press as the axle hole is drilled. First mount the chuck to thin plywood, screw it to a base that can be clamped to the drill press table, and align the chuck so the drill hits the center.

The great thing about this small advance is that I can have the kids drill wheels and not worry about their safety or about their attention wandering and holes becoming off center.

Thanks Stephen for the link.