Practice (hard work) makes perfect | What is the 10,000 hour rule? What is the ten thousand hour rule?

From the links:

• http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/08/psychology-ten-thousand-hour-rule-complexity.html
• http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/14/malcolm-gladwells-10000-hour-rule-visualized-practice-makes-perfect/

We have all heard the saying "Work smart, not hard". But is there a substitute for hard work? Perhaps if you have good / special genes, but in general, it takes humans a lot of hard work to become good at learning. Of course, there may be ways to shorten to learning curve, but hard work has to be involved. That is how the human brain learns - by forming associations and learning by repetition. 

I came across the term "10,000 hour rule" recently. Check out the links above. This is what it says:

It takes about 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become a master at something.

Perhaps that is why experience is valued so much. Now, this rule is not written in stone, but this is something to think about.