This week’s New Yorker magazine, (and next week’s too, since it is a double issue), has a wonderful article in their occasional “Annals of Invention” series about the artist and inventor Steve Hollinger called Thinking in the Rain–An Artist Takes on the Umbrella. If you ever wanted to find out about the provenance of Tubers and Zots, more than you ever knew about clerical haberdashery, manufacturing in China, and umbrella design (tricky), it is all in this article…unfortunately, not online, but in the print issue.

But there is a sentence fragment buried in there that just begs for a fuller explanation. Top of page 95 second column.

His mother, Myrna, a sculptor who works primarily in the medium of dried fish, said about him recently…

I’ve been reading Daniel J. Levitin’s book This Is Your Brain on Music. In particular, I was interested to learn of the ten-thousand hours theory of mastery…that it takes that long to become “world class” at something.

The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert–in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or twenty hours a week, of practice over ten years. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people don’t seem to get anywhere when they practice, and why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others. But no one has yet fond a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

Of course, my question is, how long does it take to become “pretty good”?

And, after searching Google, I see I’m pretty late to this party; there are further discussions in the context of game development, and personal productivity.

More Grantsmanship! The full notice posted below:

The Grantsmanship Center’s signature Grantsmanship Training Program is coming to Boston, Massachusetts, March 17-21, 2008. The program will be hosted by Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD).

The Grantsmanship Training Program is a comprehensive, hands-on workshop that covers the complete grant development process, from researching funding sources to writing and reviewing grant proposals. More than 100,000 nonprofit and government personnel have attended this fast-paced, five-day workshop, which is followed with a full year of membership support services.

During this workshop, participants learn The Grantsmanship Center’s proposal-writing format, the most widely used in the world. In addition to practicing advanced techniques for pursuing government, foundation, and corporate grants, participants work in small teams to develop and then review real grant proposals.

Participants exit the class equipped with new skills, new professional connections, and follow-up support services for one year, including professional proposal review, access to The Grantsmanship Center’s exclusive online funding databases, and an array of other benefits. Many also leave with proposals that are ready to polish and submit.

Tuition for the Grantsmanship Training Program is $875 ($825 for each additional registrant from the same organization).

To ensure personalized attention, class size is limited to 30 participants. To register online, to learn about scholarship opportunities for qualifying organizations, or for more information, visit http://www.tgci.com/gtptraining.shtml. Or call The Grantsmanship Center’s Registrar at (800) 421-9512.

If you’re wondering why the Grantsmanship Training Program is five days (when other grantwriting classes are shorter)…

· The Grantsmanship Training Program is not a quick overview of “grantwriting.”

· The Grantsmanship Training Program is an intensive, small-group, total-immersion workshop that covers funding research, program planning and proposal writing.

· By integrating program planning into our curriculum when we first created grantsmanship training, The Grantsmanship Center anticipated the increased demand by grantmakers for more accountability, smarter programming, and a stronger, more demonstrable return on granted funds.

· Grantsmanship Training Program participants prepare and critique real grant proposals under expert guidance during the class.

· You can’t get this quality of in-depth training, personal attention and hands-on experience in a two-, three- or even a four-day workshop!