Monogatari Series - Volume 21 - Chapter 0.03

003

The ten-thousand-hour rule.

According to a survey, no matter the field, people who could be called ‘masters’ have spent at least ten thousand hours in their craft.

Flipping it on its head, this means it takes only ten thousand hours to become a master in any craft, which sounds hopeful, but once one thinks of how long ten thousand hours is, it is quite despairing.

There being so little hope, that it turns into despair.

Because there are only twenty-four hours in a day.

To make the maths easier, suppose instead there are twenty-five hours in a day. Four days make a hundred hours; forty days, a thousand; and four hundred days, ten thousand hours.

There are three hundred and sixty-five days a year, so when we subtract the extra hours, ten thousand hours roughly equals a whole year.

‘So that’s it? I can be a master with just a year’s effort!’

Easy-peasy!

…Is not how I think about things, for my life has not been that idyllic. I have lived fifteen years as sort of a human being (by the way, I say ‘sort of’ not out of humility, but because I really was not a human for a while).

As for school, I have made it all the way to the first half of second year middle school. I have behaved well, but haven’t taken it too seriously; come to think of it, that is the worst type of student to deal with. Maybe it was because I was a difficult student that I ended up being the one stuffed with all the hard work.

But that is in retrospect.

Mr Sasayabu and I seemed like accomplices in that respect — but to treat my past as somebody else’s is, in the end, not a healthy thing to do.

Moving on, aside from putting in effort, humans have to live. They have to sleep and eat. They have to go to the toilet, have a bath, they have to change clothes and shave their hair — to work hard in every living moment is simply not doable.

Life precedes hard work.

Hard work is built upon life.

Therefore, there will be times when people cannot work hard.

No matter who, more than half of every day is spent on living. Even if one slaves and puts in over twelve hours of work in a day, if they tire out the next day, then it averages out to no difference.

In terms of efficiency, even if one were to keep at it consistently, an overestimation would still place it at only something like eight hours a day.

This is about the limit.

Eight hours. One third of a day.

Which means the ‘ten thousand hours = one year’ equation needs to be multiplied by three — three years.

Three years, huh…

Whilst not an eternity and seemingly attainable, it remains a real, tangible sum, a timespan that does not make people go ‘it’s gonna work!’, but instead makes them indecisive.

It is just long enough to make it annoying.

Because while ‘giving it one’s all’ sounds beautiful, if one were to give it their all, this also means casting everything else aside.

Prioritising what one thinks is important whilst giving up on everything else that might also be important.

Take me for example.

I have now decided to become a manga artist.

Oh no, I said it! — I am no longer shying away from it.

For real this time.

Little Miss Bashful is no longer Little Miss Bashful.

I’ll have to bash my way through this — this path I have chosen. {C}

Although it was instigated by the swindler, no, although it was the result of being swindled, I still want to give it everything.

Even if I find it exhausting, I am holding onto this opportunity.

I will swallow this dream whole. Like a snake.

But to give it my all, to sink half my life into this, also about equals me quitting my mandatory education in middle school.

Whilst everybody else was learning in their classes, I was in my room, learning how to draw.

I drew and drew, and I did not stop.

I am giving up more than my education.

As everybody else played, argued, and made up with their friends, polishing their life and social skills in the microcosms of society known as schools, I was polishing solely on my drawing skills.

Applying the ten-thousand-hour rule, I gave up working in school — as for what would happen if I kept not going there, if I kept not working on that, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.

Everybody’s honed social skills would shine too bright for me.

In the end, skipping class for ten thousand hours would probably only yield the habit of skipping class.

Though actually, if all my effort ends with no reward, I could still find something along those lines to make a living, I guess… (this is what is known as a ‘jack of all trades’), but leaving aside whether the rule holds up, I don’t have the time in the first place.

Not even a third of it.

The reason was, I was given a talking-to not long ago — this morning, my parents finally said it.

‘Stop wasting time on stupid things like this. Go get a job once you finish middle school.’