Draw a random skill to learn from 165, each with what you need to start and roughly how long until it stops being frustrating.
Far less than the famous number suggests, for the level most people actually want. The 10,000 hours figure comes from research on elite violinists and was about the difference between good and world-class -- it was never a claim about becoming competent, and the researcher whose work it draws on has said so repeatedly. The more useful figure for ordinary purposes is around twenty hours of deliberate practice, which takes most people from hopeless to functional at most things: enough guitar to play songs, enough of a language to have a conversation, enough drawing to make something recognisable. What matters far more than total hours is the structure of them. Practice at the edge of what you can currently do, with feedback, in short sessions spread out over time, is worth several times the same hours spent repeating what you have already mastered in one long stretch. And the first two hours are the ones that decide everything, because that is where most people quit.
This generator draws from 165 skills across five kinds -- practical, creative, mental, physical and technical -- and each says what you need to start and roughly how long until it stops being frustrating. That second number is the one that actually determines whether something gets learned, so it is the one on the card.
Every result here is drawn using crypto.getRandomValues() -- the Web Crypto API's cryptographically secure randomness -- instead of Math.random(), so it's genuinely unpredictable, not just statistically random. Learn more.
Choosing what to learn next, setting a yearly learning goal, deciding what to do with a free weekend, class and club planning, and breaking out of the habit of only ever getting better at things you are already good at.
Generate draws one skill at random from 165 using cryptographically secure randomness, and never repeats the one on screen. Filter by kind, and draw twelve with No Duplicates on for a skill a month.
A sample of what this generator can draw, spread evenly across the full list:
Not in the way it is usually quoted. It comes from a study of elite violinists and describes the difference between very good and world-class, not the path to competence. For most skills, around twenty hours of well-structured practice gets a person to functional, which is the level almost everyone is actually after.
Working slightly beyond what you can currently do, getting feedback on it, and spreading the sessions out rather than cramming. Repeating what you have already mastered feels productive and is not, which is why people plateau at exactly the point things get comfortable.
First aid and CPR, without much competition -- a half-day course, and the only skill here that might mean someone lives. After that it is a genuine toss-up between touch typing, cooking without a recipe and sharpening a knife, all of which pay back for decades.
Set the amount to twelve with No Duplicates on and you have a skill a month. Mixing the categories deliberately is worth doing: a year of only technical skills is much less interesting than a year with a physical and a creative one in it.
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