As mentioned before in part 1 of the Unchain Your Brain series, it takes about 5 to 10 years to become an expert at something. With artists, this progress gets depicted visually and thus provides an easy means to demonstrate the 10,000 hours principle.

Below are two pencil drawings done by me. The first is a drawing that was done for my platoon’s range flag in boot camp when I was 18. I would like to point out that it took years of effort to be able to do the first drawing this well. If you go back far enough, my drawings were indistinguishable from the drawings of other children. The main difference is that I continued to draw, when other children did not. Fast foward to now. The second drawing was done last week (I’m now 34) for a platoon at TBS. Not only has my drawing process become more refined over the years, and continues to improve, but I was able to draw the second picture faster and with an ease of effort that was absent in the boot camp image which I struggled with.

I’ll admit that being an expert at drawing cartoony bulldogs with guns is a niche skill to be an expert at; however, I think such niches are becoming more prevalent in society due to the necessity of segmentation.

As the world becomes more complex, the time to become an expert remains the same. As a result, collaboration becomes more important as segmentation of responsibility becomes essential to maintain progress. Consider that in 1903 building the world’s most advanced aircraft could be accomplished primarily by the efforts of two people — Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today, with the expertise required in aerodynamics, hydraulics, jet engines, and computerized navigation systems it requires far more expertise, and therefore more experts.

There is a niche out there for everybody. The questions are: What do you want to be great at? And what’s stopping you?