we need to read "outliers" by malcolm gladwell.
The TIME article on the book has a good premise ... it happens to be one I preach with a simple rule: the 10,000 hours it takes to be good at something or 10 years.
Too bad in my field, you spend 12 years getting a BS, MS, and PhD ... then you spend 1-4 getting a Post-doc. Then you are good enough to do Research and teach.