Awesome @PeterBormann - thank you for all your insights as usual. I’m gonna search something on transclasses, the concept seems intriguing. I used to love sociology.
We agree that expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance and even that expert performers have characteristics and abilities that are qualitatively different from or at least outside the range of those of normal adults. However, we deny that these differences are immutable, that is, due to innate talent. Only a few exceptions, most notably height, are genetically prescribed. Instead, we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain.
Ericsson also believes that some anatomical characteristics were believed to be fixed traits in the past. Genes rarely dictate what traits will be. However, his study has proven that the characteristics have the ability to change and adapt in response to intense practice over multiple years.
Duckworth says that effort is equally important as talent in achieving academic goals. In a study she conducted at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C, she found that the students who used the grit tactic tended to advance to the finals.
I’ve just added to my list of readings:
Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. by Daniel Coyle
Of course, the debate is always opened but all this add valuable information to the topic.
I always found maths at school easy, and sat around making paper airplanes because I was bored. Some people struggled. In contrast I found subjects requiring memorisation hard, others found them easy. I am struggling with German, words I supposedly learnt a year ago are meaningless to me today. It is of course possible that success comes from enjoyment. If you quickly get frustrated by maths, or just hate it, you won’t take the time to solve a problem. If you find it fun, you will work.
It’s known that there are variations in working memory, some people can store more items than others. IQ measures differences in some aspects of intelligence, and there are wide variations. And some people are exposed to areas of knowledge when young, which can later on create the appearance of talent in those areas. It’s reasonable to assume some people can have an aptitude for something. To excel though requires hard work. I was talking to someone about martial arts. His wife had so called natural talent, he didn’t and he got frustrated, until the coach explained that he also lacked natural talent, but he reached the olympics through hard work.
I’ve met numerous people who learnt to ice skate much faster than other people. In each case I chatted to them, and in every case it turned out that they excelled in another sporting domain, be that professional dancing, boxing or skiing. In other words, natural talent in those cases really meant that they had already acquired related skills e.g. balance and bodily control. Thus they had a head start with skating.
I tend to think there are variations in ability, for many reasons, but ultimately hard work is what counts.
