Genius, by the numbers

Secretly, I think I'm a genius. And I'd like to write the kind of book that makes people finish the last page, close their eyes, smile, and then say aloud, "Genius!"

Now, I know such a book takes time. I was ready to put in that time. Until Arthur Q. Twitterfriend* tweeted** this article:

"You too can be a genius (if you can spare 10,000 hours)"

Yes, apparently, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a genius.

10,000 hours. Let's examine that.

180 days of school, but Destructo only goes 4/5 of those, so 144 days of school
minus three sick days each for me and 2 kids = 135 days
minus a half day each for annual doctor visit and dentist visit for each of us = 132 days
minus Ann Arbor Public Schools anticipated 3 snow days per year = 129 days
multiplied by about 6 hours a day, if I never did anything but write during the school day, ever, and then is one of you coming to be my house servant/personal assistant or is Thor quitting his job in which case, take a few hours away daily for "scavenging for food scraps" = 774 hours a year

So I should be a genius writer in, um, about 13 years.

I guess it's not that long to wait, in the grand scheme of things. By that time, Destructo will be able to drive himself around, so I can take all that genius and hole myself up in my office. And then, THEN, just you wait and see what I create.

It's gonna be genius.


* Not his real name. It's a code name for "Someone I Follow On Twitter But I Forget Who And I Tried For Thirty Minutes To Figure It Out But Then Oh My God What Am I Doing I Have Book To Write! So If It Was You Please Tell Me and I'm Really Sorry."
** Man, I still feel dumb using that verb when I'm not talking about birds.