Learnable Talents
Credibility: This is purely based on opinion, I have nothing to back me up... though I'm sure somewhere out there a highly elevated professor would agree with me.
I believe that a lot of talents can be learned, and aren't simply something that one is born with.
I'm going to be using Art and Music as an example for my arguements. For example, a science kid would go up to an art kid and say "Wow, you're really talented at art. Look at my drawings, they look like crap...". I would say if that science kid was younger and realised that he or she enjoyed art, and practiced it every day, they would be able to achieve the same level as the art kid. Why? Because that's exactly what the art kid did, not because of some magical born talent.
So the difference between someone who has a "talent" in art and someone who doesnt, is that at a young age the art kid had interest in that area and practiced for a long time. I think "interest" and "talent" are very distinctly different, and "talent" is merely a product of one's "interest".
Now arguably, and I won't deny it, there are those who seem to have a "gift" of talent. Okay, lets say Mr. Perfect Pitch was born with the proper conditions where he could learn instruments in a heartbeat... the difference with that is he can skip the "interest" phase and get right to the talent. But this is why I'm not calling it a talent, instead I consider it a "gift". It's just a shortcut to the "talent" that everybody can still achieve with determination and hard work.
With the right mindset and determination that one has from an interest in a certain subject, it would influence them into learning quicker and reaching this high level of "talent". Let me give you a personal example. In grade 8's time, I would say I could sing to a reasonable degree. It honestly wasn't anything magical or special where I would consider it a talent. I just was able to hit the right notes in a very small range, no biggie. But then I never sang, even for fun, for years after. So when I sang in grade 10, it sounded like a donkey who got hit by a tractor. But then I discovered how I enjoyed singing, and for a year (grade 11) I used to sing to songs I liked in the privacy of my own home, and kept on singing for my vocal range to increase. And hey, right now I sound ok... not Celine Dion, but the point is I managed to improve my SKILLZ, into what someone would now consider a "talent". No dear, I've worked with my "interest" to getting to this level of "talent".
Same goes with art. I really, really believe that the only difference between a crappy drawer and picasso, is that picasso actually cared. Now you math kids who hate art and draw skunk crap as a result of trying to draw a beautiful girl... I think that if you had the patience and determination, and a good art teacher, you could actually achieve the level that I'm at. I'm no picasso, so that's why I think it's achievable (picasso is pushing it. Heck why am i referencing picasso? DaVinci is more like it.) It's all about the mind set
Practice makes perfect! Practicing an interest makes it a talent.
Think about it.
I believe that a lot of talents can be learned, and aren't simply something that one is born with.
I'm going to be using Art and Music as an example for my arguements. For example, a science kid would go up to an art kid and say "Wow, you're really talented at art. Look at my drawings, they look like crap...". I would say if that science kid was younger and realised that he or she enjoyed art, and practiced it every day, they would be able to achieve the same level as the art kid. Why? Because that's exactly what the art kid did, not because of some magical born talent.
So the difference between someone who has a "talent" in art and someone who doesnt, is that at a young age the art kid had interest in that area and practiced for a long time. I think "interest" and "talent" are very distinctly different, and "talent" is merely a product of one's "interest".
Now arguably, and I won't deny it, there are those who seem to have a "gift" of talent. Okay, lets say Mr. Perfect Pitch was born with the proper conditions where he could learn instruments in a heartbeat... the difference with that is he can skip the "interest" phase and get right to the talent. But this is why I'm not calling it a talent, instead I consider it a "gift". It's just a shortcut to the "talent" that everybody can still achieve with determination and hard work.
With the right mindset and determination that one has from an interest in a certain subject, it would influence them into learning quicker and reaching this high level of "talent". Let me give you a personal example. In grade 8's time, I would say I could sing to a reasonable degree. It honestly wasn't anything magical or special where I would consider it a talent. I just was able to hit the right notes in a very small range, no biggie. But then I never sang, even for fun, for years after. So when I sang in grade 10, it sounded like a donkey who got hit by a tractor. But then I discovered how I enjoyed singing, and for a year (grade 11) I used to sing to songs I liked in the privacy of my own home, and kept on singing for my vocal range to increase. And hey, right now I sound ok... not Celine Dion, but the point is I managed to improve my SKILLZ, into what someone would now consider a "talent". No dear, I've worked with my "interest" to getting to this level of "talent".
Same goes with art. I really, really believe that the only difference between a crappy drawer and picasso, is that picasso actually cared. Now you math kids who hate art and draw skunk crap as a result of trying to draw a beautiful girl... I think that if you had the patience and determination, and a good art teacher, you could actually achieve the level that I'm at. I'm no picasso, so that's why I think it's achievable (picasso is pushing it. Heck why am i referencing picasso? DaVinci is more like it.) It's all about the mind set
Practice makes perfect! Practicing an interest makes it a talent.
Think about it.
1 Comments:
There is the odd extreme case: the genius. Mozart composed his first piece when he was five. Gauss derived the arithmetic formula when he was a bored (and perhaps mischievious) kid in grade school. Nurture probably played roles in these cases, but it's unlikely that they would have accomplished what they did, purely on nurture. Say what you will, but I think some form of inborn talent must have existed in these cases.
I do believe that being "good" at something is like - a state of mind. Certainly unrealized talent amounts to nothing (for lack of a legitimate literary or historical example, I instead cite Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting - the crazy quick janitor). But again, that was talent. Interest (and self-actualization) comes later in the plot - basically when people around him set him up for that proper state of mind - that he can amount to becoming something more than Ben Affleck's character. So instead of saying that interest nurtures talent, I think a more comprehensive version of the opposite is true: initial, inborn talent is one factor that nurtures interest, and subsequently, adept ability (i.e.: what you defined in your post to be talent). That initial talent is not necessary to achieve final adeptness, but I think it sure does help.
But hey. That's just me.
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