10,000 hours to sucess

An interesting set of articles fell into my lap today. It rides on some research that basically says, if you want to be great at something you need to put about 10,000 into do it. Indeed it indicates that talent has little to do with it, save perhaps the ability to get you to put more hours into something. This does fit with my P.F. Skinner attitude that talent or being gifted is no substitution for old fashion grinding and that we can all be the be on top if we work to that goal.
However, this is not to say that hard work will guarantee success. You may be the best programmer in the world, but if you never publish your work and, to use a old phrase, never get out of your mothers basement, then you will never be a success, despite your capabilities. Opportunities need to be created to match your talent.
I encourage you to look at the articles your self, they are a rather entertaining read; more so then the research they are based on ;)
10,000 to success from the Guardian
Teach your self programing in 10 years