10,000 Hours Isn’t Enough ⏲️

Published almost 2 years ago • 6 min read

51.2022 (2/2) Edition

Editor: Justin Khanna​

Hey Reader,

If you haven’t heard the popular anecdote before, it was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers, cataloging high-performers in their field.

Here’s why that metric of “10,000 Hours” isn’t gonna get you there 👇

Digging deeper, it actually comes from a paper in American Scientist where their conclusion was that chess grand masters, on estimation, have spent 10,000 to 50,000 hours staring at chess positions.

What’s fascinating about that figure is if your point of “mastery” is at 40,000 hours, you could be 8,000 hours in, thinking you’re almost there (”I just need to hit 10,000 hours!”), when in reality you’re only 20% of the way.

But that’s not what I’m here to share today.

I want to talk about the type of hours you’re logging…

There are tasks that all of us do on a daily basis. Making coffee, writing emails, driving.

If we really sat down to do the math, I’ve definitely logged 10,000 hours of driving in my life. But I’m 100% falling to pieces if you put me behind the wheel of a F1 car in a race and ask me to drive.

Same activity, same time commitment, different level of skill.

So if the hours spent isn’t what matters most, what should we focus on instead?

Naval Ravikant has a great simplified version of this thesis (it reads, “10,000 Iterations > 10,000 Hours”), but I’m going to expand on it even further…

What you might focus on, in addition to putting in the hours, is incorporating at least one of the following:

  • Feedback - No one has to see your “Version 1”, but if you never ask someone else to look at your work/output, you’re leaving progress on the table. This feedback might come from the market (a critic tasting your dish, guests at a pop up, social media comments) or it might come from a trusted source (coach, mentor, peer).
  • Pressure - This can be internally or externally motivated. If you’re used to doing 60 covers/night and there’s all-of-a-sudden a 120 cover night, you’re still gonna have a 12 hour day, but it’s going to be a very different level of learning that you’ll experience in that time. What about if we kept the cover count the same, but you had to prep for 60 covers in just half the time? For those struggling with finding pressure within, we talk about this skill (Building in Buffer Time) in Total Station Domination 💥
  • Collaboration - This is a huge reason why CrossFit became so popular. A 60 minute workout alone is fine, but 60 minutes with 15 other people who want to push themselves is clearly going to be a better use of your time. It doesn’t have to be a large squad, either - I went from shooting videos by myself to hiring someone to help, and I saw the quality & speed increase massively.

A question you might ask yourself this week: how can I increase the quality of the time I’m spending on my “thing” by incorporating Feedback, Pressure, or Collaboration?

Top Hits 💥

​Amass, one of Copenhagen’s most influential restaurants, has closed​

Copenhagen’s groundbreaking restaurant Amass has closed and been placed in the hands of a trustee. “Restaurant Amass ApS was taken under bankruptcy proceedings on 29 November 2022,” says a note on the website. Chef-owner Matt Orlando announced the closure on Instagram.

Amass, a Copenhagen restaurant known for its zero-waste approach and ethical sourcing of ingredients, has closed after three difficult years. The restaurant, which was opened in 2013 by former head chef of NOMA, Matt Orlando, received praise for its commitment to sustainability, including sourcing ingredients from Denmark and its own garden, using ethical butchers for meat, minimizing food waste, and tracking greenhouse gas emissions. Despite earning numerous awards, including gold in the Sustainable Wine List category of Star Wine List of the Year Denmark, Amass was forced to close due to financial struggles. A trustee is currently seeking buyers for the restaurant.

Our Take: This was heartbreaking news, considering Chef Matt Orlando is such a well-respected figure in Copenhagen. However, it’s why we applaud achieving + building profit vs “shy-charging”; Amass’s tasing menu, at ~700 DKK (around ~$100) for 7 courses is wildly underpriced. These situations are often multi-factorial, but the glaring low-hanging fruit was to just charge more for the menu. Most places that lean into low-waste have to (for fear that customers will rebuttal with, “but you aren’t using expensive ingredients, why is the price so high?!”).

Check out this chart shared by the owner of Silo in the UK with how his costings have to break down in service of his sustainability operations:

​Kevin Boehm on Finding Equilibrium, and the New Food Cost Calculation​

As a restaurant owner who has been in the industry for 30 years, I have seen firsthand the challenges and changes that restaurants have faced in terms of cost management and profitability. In this article, I will discuss how rising costs and wage increases have impacted the industry and how restaurants are adapting in order to stay financially sustainable. Despite these challenges, there are also some silver linings, as the current economic climate allows for price increases and better lease deals. I will also delve into the importance of finding balance in the restaurant industry and the role it plays in long-term success.

Thirty years ago, 30 percent cost of goods sold, 30 percent labor, 4 percent occupancy costs, and 16 percent all other costs (at Boka we internally call this SILO) were possible P&L outcomes within real success stories. If you had a good lease, were able to hit 60 prime (the aggregate of cost of goods sold and labor), and ran a tight ship, you could make some real money.

Our Take: The conventional restaurant wisdom and stereotypical numbers are changing. The 30% food cost and 30% labor costs are shifting to 20% food cost and 40% labor in many establishments, making content we’ve shared in the past “out of date”. While all of this is just modeling and not granular, it’s made easier-to-stomach by the fact that consumers are more keen on accepting higher prices than they were just 18 months ago. If you’ve got an example of shifting costs that you’d like to share, respond to this email and we might feature some of our favorites next week!

ICYMI 🙌

​Shorts on Technique, Recipes & More - Checkout the playlist for some new content about 20th-century pear, apple glaze, and easy and fast way to strip herbs!

​People with great experience in the industry have a “BS Radar” that goes off when fellows show off! - Check out short clips from past podcasts on Instagram or YouTube!

If you haven't already, listen to full podcasts with Arnold Byun and Corey Chow. Look out 👀 for an upcoming episode with Eneko Axpe 🎧!

This Week, We Learned… 🧠

​The Hottest Trend of 2022: Worker Strikes - This increase in strike action follows three years of intense organizing and labor action in the hospitality industry as workers demand improved conditions, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It remains to be seen if this momentum will continue or if the movement will lose steam amid potential economic downturns.

​The Best (and Worst) of the Year I Ate New York - This past January, our newly installed diner-at-large embarked on a quest to visit as many bars and restaurants as humanly possible in 2022. Twelve months and 457 establishments later, here are the freshest, sauciest, crispiest, and cheesiest things she ate.

​Christmas Leftover Recipes From Five Top Chefs - From soup and risotto, to a recovery ‘devil curry’ and a sweet and luscious bread turned into gold slices, we propose a sustainable chef feast, giving leftovers a makeover for your holiday season.

​Food in Antarctica - Temperatures are dropping for most of us, but take a look at these amazing pictures of lunch at 112F (-80C)

Comment from you folks:

To Peep 👀

Ideas for some last-minute holiday shopping for friends/family/significant-other in the industry! Thank me later 😉

There are 10 more ideas, plus subscriber-suggestions in the comments of The Gifts Chefs (Actually) Want | 2022 and My Anti-Unitasker Kitchen Gift Guide for Professional Chefs 🎁 videos on YouTube!

Quote I'm Pondering 💭

"If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been." - T.D. Jakes

Thanks for reading, as always,

👊Justin​

facebooktwitterinstagramyoutube

​

Where hospitality professionals get curated news and impactful lessons