Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 NASB
There is consensus that 10,000 hours or 10 years doth an expert make! I read a book recently that added a new wrinkle! It is entitled Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (New York: Scribner, 2016). On pages 114 & 115, the author discusses the ever-deepening interests of experts—who see something that is continuously evolving and rich—in their areas of interest.
Interest—the desire to learn new things, to explore the world, to seek novelty, to be on the lookout for change and variety is a basic drive, according to Paul Silvia, a leading authority on the emotion of interest.
Paul explains that enduring interests move us down the road to becoming experts in a field of endeavor. The key, Paul explains, is that novelty for the beginner comes in one form, and novelty for the expert in another. For the beginner, novelty is anything that hasn’t been encountered before. Think about babies who are completely captivated by something unfamiliar. Here, however, is the fascinating insight. For the expert, novelty is nuance.
An expert has the accumulated knowledge and skill to see the nuance that a beginner, cannot. Doesn’t this explain so much about the behavior of individuals who remain full of passion and perseverance throughout their entire careers? They are always learning—always evolving—ever intoxicated with nuances.
This insight stretches across many areas of expertise—not only in the workplace but in the home and in the church and in the love of wisdom. Wisdom has many facets. Isn’t it true that until our dying day, we continue to glean new nuances of understanding regarding the mystifying events of our lives?