10,000 Hours

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's third book, "Outliers". The title grabbed my attention because as a trained behavioral scientist, I knew outliers to be those points (or people) which are unique. I have always been attracted to outliers in the world of humans and I suspect I might be one myself (not in terms of intelligence, but more in terms of lifestyle). At any rate, I was not disappointed reading this book. It was fascinating.

The ten thousand hour concept which he notes as a point for becoming proficient at something is illustrated with a story about the Beatles and their gigs in Hamburg before they hit it big. I counted my hours up as a psychotherapist and I got a conservative estimate of 30,000 hours. But I am left with the question...."What is it that I am actually good at?" The best I can come up with is that I can listen and get what people are about. But my behavioral scientist training prevents me from saying that I might be good at anything else connected with shrinking heads. I would have to quantify the skills...and what they heck are they, anyway?And how do I measure outcome? Where is DR. T (brilliant behavioral scientist) when you need him?You can see I'm in the swamp! I better flee! Yikes!!

The cypress tree photo was taken in Lake Lafayette. This is another prairie lake which had indians living all around it. Piney Z is said to have as many as forty indian mounds in the immediate area so my next foray will be to look for mounds.