[kossmoboleat]

I only read that Gladwell overemphasized the specific number but that the overall idea is still true. The original research Ericsson was trying to emphasize that long duration of training using deliberate practice are key.

There's an episode of the Freakonomics podcast that describe the whole situation and it has interviews with both Gladwell and Ericsson: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/peak/

> ERICSSON: Now, right. Gladwell basically thought that was kind of an interesting magical number and suggested that the key here is to reach that 10,000 hours. I think he’s really done something very important, helping people see the necessity of this extended training period before you reach high levels of performance. But I think there’s really nothing magical about 10,000 hours. Just the amount of experience performing may in fact have very limited chances to improve your performance. The key seems to be that deliberate practice, where you’re actually working on improving your own performance — that is the key process, and that’s what you need to try to maximize.