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I just finished reading a very interesting paper by K. Anders Ericsson, Michael J. Prietula and Edward T. Cokely called Making of an Expert. Ericsson, a Swede, is “widely recognized as one of the world’s leading theoretical and experimental researchers on expertise” according to Wikipedia. The paper sums up what seems to be the general idea in contemporary psychology of what it takes to become an expert in any field: deliberate practice for an extended period of time (10.000 hours or 10 years at a minimum), constantly throwing yourself at new challenges, having experts/teachers/supervisors around you etc. It also states that “across a wide range of experts, including athletes, novelists and musicians, very few appear to be able to engage in more than four to five hours of high concentration and deliberate practice at a time”. Finally I don’t have to feel guilty about not being able to perform complicated programming tasks after 2 o’clock anymore! What a relief.