{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/stop-using-hours-as-the-proof-of-expertise",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9024",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Stop using hours as the proof of expertise",
  "summary": "Time invested is an input. Skill is an output that needs its own evidence.",
  "kind": "anti_pattern",
  "body": "Keep practice time if it helps planning, but evaluate capability with representative tasks, delayed checks, transfer and external criteria. Deliberate practice can matter without explaining most performance differences, especially in professional domains. Hours should therefore trigger questions about practice quality, not certify expertise.",
  "limits": [
    "Performance also depends on prior knowledge, opportunity, tools, health, team context and other factors. A single benchmark is not the whole person."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-skill-acquisition-career-dominant-focus"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-5186856F4197D3A4",
    "RS-7A99264A4FC59B61"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A meta-analysis found deliberate practice explained meaningful but limited variance in performance, with much smaller shares in education and professions than in games, music and sports.",
      "source_id": "RS-5186856F4197D3A4",
      "role": "limits",
      "note": "The result argues against an hours-only expertise claim; it does not show that structured practice is useless.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    },
    {
      "claim": "A meta-analysis of adult work-related learning found goal level, persistence, effort and self-efficacy among the strongest self-regulation correlates of learning after controls.",
      "source_id": "RS-7A99264A4FC59B61",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The synthesis is older and does not establish that maximizing any one construct causes better learning in every context.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "When learning progress is reported mainly as courses completed, streaks, hours or repetitions."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Performance also depends on prior knowledge, opportunity, tools, health, team context and other factors. A single benchmark is not the whole person."
  ],
  "example": "Two consultants both report 100 study hours; one can diagnose fresh cases and defend decisions, while the other can only replay course exercises.",
  "check": "The evidence of growth contains observable performance, not only time or completion history.",
  "recognition": "Time invested is an input. Skill is an output that needs its own evidence.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-5186856F4197D3A4",
      "title": "Deliberate practice and performance in music, games, sports, education, and professions: a meta-analysis",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24986855/"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-7A99264A4FC59B61",
      "title": "A meta-analysis of self-regulated learning in work-related training and educational attainment: what we know and where we need to go",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21401218/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9024",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9019",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/keep-one-cold-benchmark"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-EA04F47374E04549",
      "title": "Learn new skills, turn them into career evidence, and protect the main development edge",
      "url": "/collections/learn-new-skills-turn-them-into-career-evidence-and-protect-the-main-development-edge"
    }
  ]
}