I observed lately that there aren’t many things that I’ve done ten or more times. Ten is low enough to be reasonable, but is high enough that it takes some intention to get to.

For example: I estimate that over my life I’ve baked 6 pies: 2 blueberry, 2 apple, and 2 pumpkin (arguably a tart). This was surprising to me, since I consider myself a casual yet decent baker of pies. Decent enough for people to ask for my recipes!

I also consider myself a decent eater of pies. Even there, I estimate a lifetime total of having tried ten individual pies (including pumpkin, excluding cheesecake).1

Doing a thing once a year will take you a decade to do ten times. Even once a week will take a few months to hit ten times. Despite my enthusiasm, my pie production (and consumption) is largely limited to Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, professional bakers churn through ten pies in under an hour.

Ten is different

If you want to take something seriously, first commit to doing it ten times.

After ten times, you will have done way more than “tourists” who have tried it once. You will have done more than once a year “casuals”, even if they’ve done it for years.

Another data point: the viewership of the math lectures I’m working through.

Assuming (!) that most viewers are watching sequentially, only an estimated 28% of the first lecture viewers will watch the second lecture. By the 10th lecture, most of the viewers that will drop off have gone, with 4% left. Only 3% watch last lecture!

I’m on lecture 6, a group where 20-45% finish the course.

By ten lectures, you have more in common with the completionists than the dropouts — 80% of those who make it to lecture ten continue on complete the course.

A public commitment

Staying committed is a differentiator, especially when fall off is steep, and it often is. 2

This post (10th on this blog) is my public commitment to start doing things ten times. Starting with four more pies.

  1. This is individual pies tried, not kinds of pies tried. Why distinct-pies-tried? I think it gets best at the heart of the matter of what we care about. Better than slices, since it is easy to eat multiple slices in one sitting. Better than volumes of entire pie consumer, since pies are meant to be shared. I considered days-where-pie-was-eaten, but most pies at home are picked at over a long period. Cumulatively, I think I have eaten much more than ten slices of pie, on more than ten days, but much less than ten pies-volumes of pie. ↩

  2. Retention is often log-normal, the limit distribution of multiplying random variables. ↩