Once upon a time, many years ago, I decided I wanted to become a fiber artist. Although it is an extreme oversimplification, Malcolm Gladwell told us in his book Outliers that it take 10,000 hours to master something. I took this concept and applied it to my work. I spent 4-8 hours every day researching, practicing, and writing about textiles. 10,000 hours was an ambiguous goal, there to motivate me, but in about five years, I had hit that number.
Then something interesting happened. I kept going. At that point, I realized I knew absolutely nothing. 10,000 hours barely scratched the surface.
