Scott Adams Quotes

We now live in the era of the super-specialist - of clinicians who have taken the time to practice at one narrow thing until they can do it better than anyone who hasn't.

Identify your niche and dominate it. And when I say dominate, I just mean work harder than anyone else could possibly work at it.

The thing that you do obsessively between the ages of 13 and 18 is the thing that you stand the best chance of being world class at.

All the guys at this top level, they're pretty much dangerous all over the place. If you're not good all over the place, you'll be in a little bit of trouble. It's hard to swim at the top end if you're only good at one thing.

You have to have some form of talent. Getting to a skill-set when you can do something is achievable. Getting to a skill-set when you can do it an elite level is a different thing.

In order to be a world-class expert in anything, be it audiology, drama, music, art, gymnastics, whatever, one needs to have a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean that if you put in 10,000 hours that you will become an expert, but there aren't any cases where someone has achieved world-class mastery without it! So the time spent at the activity is indeed the most important and influential factor.

You have to be first, different, or great. If you're one of them, you may make it.

There's not enough said about the beauty of being able to focus on what you do well.

Sometimes it's better if you can play in only one position. You see that with other players. These guys specialise in one position and they can completely concentrate.

Not everybody can do everything at a high level.

I live by the business model that there is a better than, a less than, or a different than. Those are the three categories. I chose to be different than. The one that's different than will stand out with the proper work ethic.

Referee Norlinger is outstanding in the sense that he stands out.

Better to master one mountain than a thousand foothills.

It's important to focus on what we do best and master one craft at a time.

You either have to be first, best, or different.

When folks get to the best of their profession, people are like, "Who am I to give a critique to this individual who's reached mastery?".

Let every man practice the art that he knows best.

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 up again and again…no one has yet found 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.

An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject and how to avoid them.

Be so good at what you do that no one else in the world can do what you do.

Let every man practise the trade which he best understands.

If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything.

Make yourself master of one single subject and the time must come when your knowledge will be valuable.

No man can thoroughly master more than one art or science.

The shoemaker makes a good shoe because he makes nothing else.