Time is the secret ingredient
Summary
We pay too much attention to the idea of skill and talent. Often, time on task, trumps talent. Could this be the secret to doing excellent work, having a resilient career and building excellent teams? We explore that question in this article.
Many of you don’t know that my alter-ego is that of a wildlife photographer. Those who know me well may even argue that my job funds this passion of mine. Yet, if I was to assess my work dispassionately, I’m nowhere close to the best wildlife photographers! There’s an easy, glamorous answer to explain this difference in outcomes. All these photographers are more talented and skilful. But if you follow the lives of these maestros, you’ll realise that the truth is not as straightforward.
Unlike someone like me, who spends 20-30 days at the most in the wilderness, each year, the best photographers spend upwards of 200 days in the great outdoors. Time; not skill or talent; is the secret ingredient. When you look hard enough, you’ll notice that the luxury of time can work like magic.
Most work has certain factors that aren’t within your control. For wildlife photography, those factors are things like luck, weather, and animal behaviour. Time in the field makes the law of averages work in your favour. You can’t be unlucky all the time. Keep at it and you’ll get the money shot.
Skill isn’t something we’re born with. Time in the field allows you to practise your skills to where you can execute them like second nature. You try, you fail, you learn, and you get better from experience. 200 days of experience each year will help you build far more skill than 20-30 days.
Time hones your judgement. A true master of their craft can make fast decisions in their line of work. In genres like wildlife photography, such intuitive thinking can be the difference between a brilliant image and a mediocre one. When you familiarise yourself with a habitat, or the behaviour of a particular species, you can decide in the blink of an eye how to maximise a photographic opportunity in front of you.
Can I be “that damn good” at photography? Maybe, maybe not. I am sure of one thing though. I won’t ever get that good, with just 20-30 days each year in the field. Whatever my excuses might be.
That example from wildlife photography applies to every craft humans practice. From sports to programming and from comedy, to design; the secret to great outcomes is often “time on task”.
“Time on a task, over time, eventually beats talent every time.” - Gary Keller
Angela Duckworth of “Grit” fame, characterises this notion of time on task by spotlighting the idea of ‘effort’. In Professor Duckworth’s view, “effort counts twice”.
When you apply effort to hone what you think of as an innate talent, you build your skill.
When you apply effort to your skills, you get achievement.
Effort counts twice
Ok, so let’s imagine you’re following this train of thought. You may ask, “How does this relate to work?”. Good question. Let me answer that.
Skills matter. Time matters more.
When you work in an industry for a while, there are a few things you may get good at. But being good and staying good are two different things. Every craft develops with time. If you don’t practise your craft regularly, you have little chance of matching the state-of-the-art. This is why it’s hard to come out of retirement in many professions.
For technologists in a world where layoffs have become “normal”, this means that we must spend more time practising the skills we think we’re good at. This idea is most relevant to experienced people. Our industry often forces us to generalise as we gain more experience. My ex-colleague, Jason Yip, instead proposes that we fashion ourselves as “T-shaped” people. Unlike specialists, who are “I” shaped or generalists who don’t practise a specific skill in-depth, “T-shaped” people are capable of many things, but also experts at one. T-shaped people become that way by continuing to invest time in their core skills, even as they gain exposure to other areas.
“T-shaped” people as compared to specialists and generalists (from Jason Yip)
T-shaped people are rare and invaluable wherever they work. That to me, is a way to build resilient teams and resilient careers.
Choose people who have time
Often, when I do a job well, my colleagues appreciate it. Make no mistake - I love that appreciation! I’m less flattered though, when someone attributes these outcomes just to skill. The fact is, that through most of my work, I embrace the struggle. If I’ve built any skill, it’s less an outcome of innate talent and more a result of being ready for the grind. I’m pretty certain that anyone else in the same circumstances, with the same willingness to grit it out, will produce similar or even better results. Butt on my chair, eyes on the screen, fingers on the keyboard. And time. That’s what it is. No big deal.
Why make this honest admission? Well for one, if you’re constructing a dream team, then find people who’ll embrace the struggle and invest time on task, regardless of their skill or seniority level. And if you’re part of a team and you want to do excellent, high-quality work, then get time on your side. Seek tasks on the very edge of your capabilities. Not too easy, not too hard - just right! You know, those tasks that sit in the Goldilocks zone. Once you find that work, attack it with time. Not only will you get better at what you do, but you’ll also approach work with higher motivation.
The flip side of this advice is to pass on “experts” who’ve lost the taste for depth. Unless you’re solving mundane problems, excellent outcomes always benefit from the investment of time and cognitive capacity. Often, the rookie who’s willing to work undistracted; in deep work mode; can be more valuable than the expert who runs from meeting to meeting.
Miles Davis
“Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing.”
“Time on task” is not a new concept. Bloom’s Taxonomy and Ron Edmonds’ work on effective schools, both allude to its benefits in skill development. That’s from way back in the 60s and 70s!
One would have thought that we’d have wised up since. From Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindsets to Geoff Colvin’s debunking of the “talent myth”; we know that people who stick it out invariably do the best. But while companies wax eloquent about growth mindsets, the sentiment doesn’t show in the way we craft teams. Or in how we organise work for people.
And so we come full circle and answer the question - “How does this relate to work?”. Well, in a future where I see AI disrupting many professions that only do shallow work, I also see deep work as a way for companies and individuals to differentiate themselves. Deep work needs time on task. Asynchronous ways of working are an excellent way to buy that time. The question is - will you and I make that bargain?