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THE VIDEO SHELF · rapid skill acquisition

The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything | Josh Kaufman | TEDxCSU

Josh Kaufman's TEDx talk argues that you can reach practical competence in almost any skill with about 20 hours of focused practice, rather than the 10,000 hours often quoted. He describes how becoming a parent led him to rethink how adults learn, and lays out a short method for rapid skill acquisition.

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Why HN readers recommended it

HN uses it as the standard counterpoint to the 10,000-hour rule and as an encouraging recipe for starting new skills.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
TEDx Talks
Topic
rapid skill acquisition
Format
talk
Level
general
HN recommenders in dataset
5
HN mentions in dataset
11
Recommendation years in dataset
2014–2024

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • How about 20 hours? [VIDEO] The 10k hours thing is based on how long it took athletes to become the very top of their field. The very top of their highly specific, highly competitive field. It doesnt even mean becoming an 'expert' (whatever that means), …

    Freeboots on Hacker News · 2014-08
    In The 1,000-hour rule (2009)

  • Reminds me of the book "The First 20 Hours" by Josh Kaufman. He gives examples of skills that you can learn fairly well in 20 hours. One of them is programming. I have some issues with the book but overall it's a fun read. Here's …

    kriro on Hacker News · 2015-12
    In The 100-Hour Rule

  • It might be a good idea to add a meta section with resources on learning to learn. Books would be stuff like "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning", "The first 20 hours", "The Talent Code", "Inner Game of Tennis" etc. Link to a cool TED-talk (20 hours): …

    kriro on Hacker News · 2016-06
    In One Click to Be Pro: my list of the best resources for mastering a subject

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.