Myths around deliberate practice travel faster than papers. Each item pairs a folklore line with a tighter claim.
Worldwide notes name real systems — 영재교육, 예고, 部活, CTY, AIS, Iten — as places and policies, not racial essences.
Myths
- 10,000 hours is Ericsson’s law — It is Gladwell’s slogan The 1993 paper compared groups of violinists; it did not issue a universal hour ticket.
- Any practice counts — Design is the construct Playing favourites is not the same variable as weakness-targeted work.
- Practice explains almost all excellence — Macnamara 2014 says minority Rounded bands: games ~26%, music ~21%, sports ~18%, education ~4%.
- If practice is minority, skip it — It can still be the best lever A minority share of variance can be the largest controllable one.
- Children should start stopwatches at four — Bloom’s first phase is play Early forced diaries can kill the domain they claim to serve.
- Adults are too late — Design still works Some windows close; the method of the hour does not retire at 18.
Worldwide
- Germany — Musikhochschule diaries — The 1993 setting. Conservatoire culture still logs hours as identity.
- United States — Gladwell plus youth sport — The slogan hit parenting just as specialisation debates exploded.
- South Korea — 예고 practice rooms — Arts high schools and private studios industrialise evening hours.
- Japan — 部活 plus 音楽大学 — Club hours plus music colleges — volume is easy to see; design is uneven.
- China — Conservatory pipelines — Central Conservatory and provincial schools pair early start with high volume.
- Brazil — Football academies — Santos and others supply hours; only some of the work is designed in Ericsson’s sense.
Deliberate practice: drop the folklore that ranks groups. Keep the systems that can be named and improved.