Which One You Should Focus On Quality or Quantity?

Summary

The article suggests that focusing on quantity, through repeated practice and action, can lead to higher quality outcomes than striving for perfection from the start.

Abstract

In the pursuit of skill mastery, especially in the fast-paced digital world, the article argues for the importance of quantity over quality. It illustrates this point with the example of a writing aspirant who initially focuses on structuring ideas without taking action, a state referred to as 'motion.' The article contrasts motion with action, emphasizing that true learning and improvement come from taking action and practicing repeatedly, as demonstrated by a classroom experiment where the group tasked with taking more photos produced the best single photo. This approach aligns with the concept of the 10,000-hour rule, which posits that mastery requires extensive practice. The article encourages readers to prioritize consistent repetition and action over the pursuit of immediate perfection or high quality.

Opinions

The author believes that the desire to be an expert quickly can lead to being a 'jack of all trades, master of none.'
Engaging in 'motion' activities like planning without subsequent action is seen as a way to delay the fear of failure.
Quality is more likely to emerge from quantity; practice and repetition are crucial for skill development.
The article suggests that perfection and quality should not be the initial focus; instead, one should aim for repeated practice to achieve the best performance.
The concept of the 10,000-hour rule is referenced to support the idea that intensive practice is necessary for mastering complex skills.
The author implies that the number of repetitions is a more important factor in habit formation than the duration of time spent.

Which One You Should Focus On Quality or Quantity?

Living in the digital world makes us have an urge to be an expert at some skills quickly. We often feel necessary to learn a bunch of skillsets Without mastering any of them. Therefore, we usually call them a jack of all trades master of none.

As I have been dreaming to become a professional writer (who gets paid). I frequently encounter an issue. For instance, before I decided to write my mind try to formulate the structure of the idea after I found it. Eventually, I felt completion for the things I have done.

I may successfully, grasped a bunch of ideas to write but I didn’t take any action — it only happen in my mind. That’s what they named as motion.

Motion is a sort of activity that only happens in our mind such as planning and strategizing to accomplish a task. Those are good things to do, but if you don’t follow them with actions you will not get any results.

And the only thing humans like to do motion rather than taking an action is to delay fear of failure.

A teacher conduct research held in his class. The volunteer is the students, divided into two groups with the same amount of people. Group A given a task by which they get to assign 100 photos. At the same time, group B only gets to assign 1 the best photo they had taken during the period of time given.

The result was the best picture was assigned from group A the quantity group. It can only happen when group A is learning by doing. The best photo they took is formed only occurred with a lot of practice.

Practice means taking an action in every step you have planned. This may sound the same as 10,000-hour rule which was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell.

it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials.

People used to ask “how long does it take to set a new habit”. Meanwhile, those should’ve been asking “how many repetitions are required to make a habit automatic?”

So, don’t go for perfection nor quality. Your best performance only happens when you do repetition over and over again.