I don't agree that talent is innate and doesn't need to be taught. Talent without learning and experience exists in a void context. Nobody is ever going to see it if nothing is done with it.

Hmm ... on closer reading, maybe I don't so much disagree with you as have a strong issue with the word "talent" and the way it gets abused in common conversations. Too many people immediately throw their hands up in the air when trying something new, and blame it on their lack of this mysterious "talent" thingy. "Oh, it's hopeless. I'll never draw / program / knit / brush my own teeth. I just don't have the talent for it."

I have little or no talent in anything, but that has done nothing more than present me with a challenge. If I want to do something, then I'm damn well going to learn how to do it. That may mean spending countless frustrated hours tracking down stray pointers in C, drawing female figures that look vaguely like horses in drag, messing up contexts in Perl, or miscounting when to knit and when to purl. I'm going to learn it, and I'm going to revel in the smug satisfaction of having learned it as my skills progress.

Of course, this approach may not get me the above-the-line "talent" status, but I'm okay with that :)

In reply to Re^2: A muse on Talent by webfiend
in thread A muse on Talent by kwaping

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