Zane Deaton

Why is everyone in Hollywood talking about 10,000 hours?

That's the amount of time that author Malcolm Gladwell says it takes for a talented person to master a cognitively complex skill -- like becoming a world-class pianist or an Olympic athlete -- in his new book, "Outliers: The Story of Success."

According to Gladwell, it's the number of hours that separates the merely good from the really great, and it's easy to see why the "10,000 hour" idea has caught fire in an industry like Hollywood, which is only partly a meritocracy, where riches rain down just as often on the lucky and the well-connected as on the talented. For many who have found success in the entertainment industry, Gladwell's theory offers a nifty, concrete explanation to the question of "Why me? Why have I climbed to the top of my field when so many others have failed?"

"Outliers" is the No. 1 New York Times bestseller at the moment, but still, reading books that can't be made into movies isn't Hollywood's usual pastime. Yet the book seems to have become the topic of conversation around town, during holiday parties and Oscar soirees. "Revolutionary Road" director Sam Mendes recently mentioned it during an interview. Will Smith, currently starring in "Seven Pounds," didn't mention "Outliers" by name during a recent chat with the Los Angeles Times, but he described a small movie he'd seen as featuring thespians who "I could tell . . . weren't world-class actors with 10,000 hours of experience."

And then there was a long conversation earlier this month with Dustin Hoffman over a burger at the Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica. Hoffman, in the midst of promoting his upcoming movie "Last Chance Harvey," brought up the book because his wife was reading it and giving him the summary.