[SuoDuanDao]

There's a very interesting TED talk in which someone talks about how to learn a skill to a decent level in 40 hours. He makes a similar point - that one should read a few books to learn what the key skills are, but not use reading as a procrastination-aide.

[mariodiana]

A brief write-up and a link to the TED talk may be found here:

https://ideas.ted.com/dont-have-10000-hours-to-learn-somethi...

[powersnail]

Learn a skill to a decent level in 40 hours is only possible if the skill is simple, for instance, playing a few chords on a ukulele.

I'd love to see someone learn the piano, the violin, or classical guitar. Or jazz improvisation. Or oil painting. Or ballet.