I can’t remember the first time I heard “It takes 10,000 hours to master a skill.” Likely during cello lessons in middle school, at the same time I learned “perfect practice makes perfect” and “take one day off and you will know. Take two days off and the audience will know.”

Having accumulated perhaps 6,000 hours of cello practice over the past twenty years I concur: I need at least another 4,000 hours (and likely more) to become a master cellist. But after spending perhaps 2,000 hours as a content strategist in the past 4 years, I don’t believe the same holds true.

A few years ago Sonia Simone noted the futility of attempting to master content marketing – or any other fast-changing market skill. She’s right; by the time I spend 10,000 hours as a content strategist, the job will no longer exist in the same manner. But I have a secret.

I don’t believe I need to practice content strategy to become a master content strategist.

I have spent roughly 2,000 hours of my life actively creating content strategies, leading consulting sessions, and writing copy. But aside from that, I have spent 1,000 hours writing papers for academia, local magazines, and to express my own creativity. I spent 800 hours learning to listen to people and studying people, when I worked as a stage manager. I spent 200 hours creating videos and writing storyboards as a film production assistant. I have spent 200 hours rewriting and editing articles for bosses, coworkers, and friends (and once, an ex-boyfriend whose love letter just didn’t rhyme well enough). And I’ve spent at least 100 hours of my life arguing grammar and critiquing writing styles. Y’know, for fun.

In a fast-changing profession like UX, there is no way to spend 10,000 hours doing one specific practice. But the beauty of living in the Information Age is that diverse practical  knowledge is more valuable than specific mastery.

I am not a copywriting master. Nor am I a research master. But I am a jack of all Content Strategy trades, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.