Bob Ross Reveals the "Secret"

[toomanycats]

"If there's a secret, it's practice."

- Bob Ross, The Joy of Painting, "Mountain Path", Season 9, Episode 9, originally aired 6/25/86

David Lee Roth has often referred to the "10,000-hours rule." This number comes from a 1993 paper by David Epstein, which is the most influential modern take on skill development. This paper features 30 violinists at a music academy, the 10 best of whom had accumulated 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” on average by the age of 20, and were deemed by their instructors to have international soloist potential. The next 10 musicians were deemed potential pros as part of a symphony, and the bottom 10 were categorized as “music teachers.” The paper concludes that the superior musicians had spent more time in what the researchers characterized as deliberate practice: solitary, cognitively engaged, effortful practice focused on error correction that “is not inherently enjoyable.”

[Partscaster]

In the British comedy series "Peep Show" Rob Ross is referred to as God.

I would like to add that 10-30 thousand hours of in-deliberate noodling might not yield the same.

[toomanycats]

I have a deep connection with Bob Ross that goes back to the Summer of 1986 when I was a teenager with a job on a horse farm. At noon everyday I'd ride my bicycle home and sit in front of the tv watching Bob Ross on PBS while I ate lunch. Bob's sensibility really spoke to me.

All these years later I find Bob no less compelling, though for different reasons. He's been better than prozac and whiskey for relieving my anxiety. I particularly like his recurring depictions of abandoned and dilapidated cabins, with accompanying whimsical stories about former human inhabitants whose untimely demise always seems to be related to their occupation as trappers, hunters, and despoilers of nature.

Bob was really a philosopher, throwing koans out constantly, and very much akin to Japanese Shintoism. For Bob the trees and mountains all have souls. Like Godzilla, nature has a way of turning on a recalcitrant mankind and biting him in the ass.

[tonebender]

Well, that explains a lot. I suppose I should look into teaching guitar.

[Partscaster]

I will soon be receiving my

"Bob Ross for President" bumper sticker.
The only bumper sticker which I will have on my car.

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[Rollin Hand]

In the British comedy series "Peep Show" Rob Ross is referred to as God.

I would like to add that 10-30 thousand hours of in-deliberate noodling might not yield the same.

That's me in a nutshell. I love to play, but I am not nearly as good as I would like to be. That is, in part, because I don't get to play as much anymore, so I would rather spend the time having fun rather than doing exercises.

[jtcnj]

3:28 - "Black and blue, black and blue: thats the way I look after arguing with my wife".

I literally burst out laughing.

I just sat and watched this whole episode - it reminded me why I always regarded Mr. Ross so highly.
Thanks for the therapy session TMC!