This idea, popularised by Malcolm Gladwell, is right in suggesting that expertise doesn’t come overnight. But it’s based on one specific example (elite violinists) and isn’t a universal rule. Separate studies have shown that the number of hours to reach master status in chess ranges from 728 hours to 16,120 – meaning some players need 22x more practice hours than others to reach the same skill level.
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There is surprisingly little science behind this well known rule. It actually dates back to a marketing campaign, released by a pedometer company before the start of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. The Japanese character for 10,000 looks rather like a person walking, so the device was called the Manpo-kei or 10,000 steps meter.
Who you gonna call?
We all know that asking someone to keep a secret only invites them to share it. So ahead of the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, artistic director Danny Boyle subtly changed his request: asking spectators who saw the rehearsal to “save the surprise.”
In the recent French elections, support for Le Pen’s far right party was highest among 18-34s. So much for the famous idea that ‘if you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart’.
Noah Lyles won the men’s 100m final at the 2024 Olympics, despite not leading for the vast majority of the race. He took poll when it mattered.
A mysterious French trader (known as Theo) used an ingenious polling technique during the 2024 US election: rather than asking respondents who they would vote for, he asked them who they expected their neighbours to vote for. This indirect method revealed support for Kamala Harris to be lower than people thought, and Theo was so confident in a Trump win that he bet $30 million on it (a very smart move).
The youth vote has traditionally been left leaning: advocating climate action and social justice. But in Germany, the far right AFD is actually most popular among younger voters (especially men) – helped by smart use of social media and the promise of plain speaking politics.
We think of 3D films as a modern phenomenon, but more of them were released in 1953 than in any year since. Alfred Hitchcock was among the many high profile directors who jumped on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, a combination of uncomfortable glasses and bad films caused a rapid decline in production soon after – that is, until Avatar restarted the hype all over again in 2009.
The true figure is closer to 40%, at least in the UK. And it’s only going down, due to fewer wives filing for divorce during the first decade of marriage.
An alluring headline that is riddled with problems. Firstly, it’s not statistically true. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 50% survive at least five years, about one-third make it to ten years or more, and about 20% live 20 years or longer. Secondly, many businesses shut for positive reasons: family circumstances change, better opportunities arise etc. And some companies close down but are able to pay their debts.
During Covid-19, in the absence of in person exams, the government created an algorithm to assign A-level grades. It was designed to be fair – based on historic school results and teachers’ assessments of individual students – but it ended up discriminating against students from poorer backgrounds, whose schools typically performed worse in the past and whose class sizes tended to be bigger.
The glittering hotpants, sequined jumpsuits and platform heels that ABBA wore wasn’t an attempt to stand out. It was a money saving scheme: Swedish tax authorities had special tax discounts for items of clothing bought for work purposes that couldn’t be worn for everyday life.
An acre was originally defined as the size of a field a farmer could plow in a single day. In practice, this meant a field that could be plowed in a morning, since the oxen had to be rested in the afternoon.
70% of people who received one acting credit on a movie never received a second. Only 1% received more than 30.