Key indicators of expertise?

Feel free to challenge this . . . .

All of the participants have referred to the amount of time (#1) needed to become an expert. All have referred to “guesswork” or “trial-and-error” or “mucking around” or “fiddling” in order to learn, and in order to gain expertise. For Example:

Regarding Time
Anne – “you become more and more experienced”.
Charli – “It was over time really, just from like going onto the other links and sites and stuff and exploring really. Yeah, just exploring. And you learn with experiences.”
Chris – Has used computers since the age of 2.
Jake – Spends approximately 5 hours per day in front of a computer.
Joe – “By probably spending time, by spending time reading things and getting other people to help me, for example, my dad, just spending time on the computer.”
Lisa – “Cause I'm using my spare time on there really, at home” (approximately 2 – 3 hrs per day).
Tim – “ . . . if you use something a lot, and you know a lot about it, and then done it for a long time . . . ”.
Tom – “So it's about having time?” T – “Yeah, having the time and patience to read”.

Regarding Experimentation (#2)
Anne - “Oh, what does this button do? Oh, look! And that sort of thing, or by accident.”
Charli – “When I stuff up . . . I know like okay, I'll go back and do this thing cause this is sort of what I do . . . and what most people do, and I'll always try that.”
Chris - He comments "I'm not getting anywhere" and tries another route (from an observation).
Jake – “I just learnt all the different sounds by listening and playing to see which does what.”
Joe – “Yknow, just browsing along and trying new things, and yeah, exploring, yep.”
Lisa – “Um, just really fiddling around on the computer and just learning from that, yeah”.
Tim – “I just try things and figure it out, and just try it, just keep trying until you get it right, yeah.”
Tom - He said through playing it, trying different things, and asking other people who were playing online (from an observation).

Experimenting is defined as: an attempt to do something new, or a trying out of something to see what will happen, and the use of tests and trials in order to make discoveries.