Today the following thought crossed my mind while I was at work: “You know, I finally feel like I am understanding this oceanography stuff.  Things are clicking. I can start digging deeper and advancing in ways I never thought of before because I finally have enough background material in my head to do so.”

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And then I felt a little dismayed: “Why did it take me an entire 5 years to FINALLY feel like I get it? Does everything take that long?”

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In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. I am NO expert in my field of oceanography but I found it interesting that today in particular a sense of confidence in knowledge overwhelmed me. I’m not just a beginning student of the material anymore, but an engaged active driver of the project.

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Out of curiosity, my colleague and friend Cora and I calculated how many hours I have spent here…40 hour per work week x 52 weeks in a year x 5 years = 10,400 hours.

OH MY GOD ITS TRUE!!!

Queue this song by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis now: Ten Thousand Hours

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