“‘Practice the technique 1,000 times and you may learn 10%.’ – Hayawo Kiyama, Daito Ryu Shihan
When you read the quote above, what was your first thought? If it was something like “That is crazy. I can learn a technique long before a 1,000 repetitions let alone only 10% of the technique,” you should consider two things. First, your approach to learning. Secondly, is you may be taking the quote too literally.”
…the requisite number of repeats for mastery is more like 10,000, so the quote appears to be numerically accurate.
Ten-thousand is the Taoist number for infinity, probably because 1,000 is the last of the exponential tens (as we have ten fingers), that a person can comprehend. One-thousand reps may lead to 10% expertise, while 2,000 earnest reps could become 10.001% expertise, with increases in expertise forming an asymptotic graph that approaches complete knowledge, but never in a lifetime can one significantly approach total mastery in the absolute, not relative sense.
I enjoyed this piece. I like both your writing style and the meanings you deliver.