In Beginners, Tom Vanderbilt argues that you’re never too old to learn something new – and enjoy it
Beginnersby Tom VanderbiltKnopf
Malcolm Gladwell popularised, and oversimplified, the notion that 10,000 hours constitutes the "magic number of greatness". That investment of time and effort, he argued in his 2008 bestseller Outliers, is imperative for anyone hoping to master anything from a sport to computing to music. The message? That success is far from arbitrary; it requires work.
But that's assuming you want to make sacrifices and be an expert. What if you cannot afford the equivalent of 416 24-hour days of "deliberate practice" to achieve prowess? What if you're content simply to dabble? Tom Vanderbilt asks those questions in Beginners, which should motivate especially the middle-aged to learn for the joy of it and gain from its transformative power - tempting rewards promised in the subtitle.