Ethos vs. Logos: Analyzing the 10,000-Hour Rule Debate

Introduction to the 10,000-Hour Rule

This paper compares and contrasts the rhetorical approaches used in two articles that assess and analyze what is commonly known as the 10,000-hour rule. For the uninformed, the rule states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours for a person to achieve mastery of a discipline or trade. Common examples include mastery of the violin, writing novels, and computer programming. These are among the many examples used by authors Sandman and Bradley as they analyze and challenge the 10,000-hour rule. While both writers reach much the same conclusion, Bradley's use of logos is clearly the stronger choice for the argument being made, and his overall technique — drawing on varied examples and clear explanations — is superior to Sandman's reliance on personal authority.

Sandman's Ethos-Based Approach

There are three classical approaches to rhetoric: ethos, logos, and pathos. When assessing the two works compared here, it becomes clear which approach each author employs. Jared Sandman asserts that the 10,000-hour rule is fundamentally flawed, and upon reading his work it becomes apparent that he relies on his own authority and experience to make this point. Sandman is therefore using the ethos approach to rhetoric.

For example, Sandman argues that it took him approximately 250,000 words to reach a publishable level of writing, and another 250,000 words to achieve a fairly high degree of skill. He further contends that the 10,000-hour benchmark is somewhat inflated. He notes that he writes about two pages per hour, meaning that 10,000 hours would yield roughly 20,000 pages — the equivalent of fifty full novels. To underscore his reliance on personal authority, he states that any writer who has not mastered their craft by the fiftieth book is clearly doing something wrong, and that his own threshold of competency was reached much sooner than that. Sandman concludes by proposing his own model: the 1,000-day rule, in which a person writes for one hour each day. Over three years, this would bring a writer to the half-million-word benchmark he advocates in his article (Sandman, 2013).

Bradley's Logos-Based Approach

Bradley takes an entirely different approach, one grounded in logos rather than ethos or pathos. This becomes evident in two major ways. First, Bradley draws on examples that have nothing to do with his own life. He points to the Beatles, who played night after night at venues in Hamburg, accumulating extensive practice before reaching mainstream success later in the decade. He also cites Bill Gates, who had access to computers at a time when they were extremely rare for ordinary individuals — access that contributed directly to his eventual mastery and, ultimately, his extraordinary success. Bradley additionally discusses how long it typically takes to master an instrument such as the guitar.

When Bradley does refer to himself, he is almost self-deprecating: he admits to having played guitar casually for years while being far from a master, joking that people might suggest he put on headphones until he improves. He also breaks down the mathematics of what it takes to accumulate 10,000 hours of practice over various time periods, then does the same for 20,000 hours. He argues that persistent, focused, and consistent practice is the path to mastery, but he also acknowledges that some skills require far fewer hours. Memorizing digits, for instance, may require only 500 to 1,000 hours to achieve a high level of proficiency (Bradley, 2012). This breadth of deliberate practice examples gives Bradley's argument wide appeal.

Conclusion

The comparison of these two articles demonstrates that there is more than one valid approach to analyzing a concept or rule. However, Bradley clearly executed his analysis more effectively and was far better at engaging a wide audience through examples that are broadly recognizable and logically compelling. This is not to say that Sandman's conclusions were incorrect — in fact, his analysis is largely sound. Nevertheless, his chosen rhetorical strategy does not give him sufficient standing to make the ethos approach work beyond the narrow context of writing, whereas Bradley's use of logos allows his argument to resonate with virtually any reader.

References

Bradley, D. (2012). Why Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule is wrong. Bbc.com. Retrieved 9 September 2015, from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121114-gladwells-10000-hour-rule-myth

Sandman, J. (2013). 10,000 hours — Jared Sandman. Jaredsandman.com. Retrieved 9 September 2015, from http://www.jaredsandman.com/uncategorized/10000-hours/