tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post114697925803232875..comments2024-03-21T07:37:30.475-04:00Comments on Light reading: The Freakanomics guysJenny Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02295436498255927522noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-1147091417690426022006-05-08T08:30:00.000-04:002006-05-08T08:30:00.000-04:00I have again surfed over here from Becca, and have...I have again surfed over here from Becca, and have to thank you both for this post, which is terrific, and for recommending <I>Magic or Madness</I>, which I just finished. Though I have to say, now it looks like I've got to buy the hardcover of vol. II, since I'm not sure I can wait for the paperback. Oh well.<BR/><BR/>And to link this post to writing, duh. Lots of talent out there--but it's the practice. I think more people believe, though, that writing is a teachable skill, one in which talent can be developed, because we all have to learn to write anyway; whereas sports and music are to some degree self-chosen, and then we (tend to) believe they are self- chosen out of innate talent. <BR/><BR/>This seems to me intuitively true:<BR/><I>the psychological drive to practice the skills surrounding the talent is almost itself part of that talent.</I> Well said.Libbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406720496767981522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-1147019880528078702006-05-07T12:38:00.000-04:002006-05-07T12:38:00.000-04:00Music and sports are two of the places where you s...Music and sports are two of the places where you see the most marked differences between the natural talents people start off with, for sure. And yet in both of these cases it is possible to waste a talent, or on the other hand to cultivate a smaller (though of course still substantial) talent and in the end achieve by a kind of grace something virtually indistinguishable from the prodigy-like talent. (There is a good conversation about this at the end of my favorite novel of all time, Rebecca West's "The Fountain Overflows.") <BR/><BR/>We partly don't like talking about these things because of the deeply inegalitarian nature of inborn talent. But I must say that I think it's a bad deal when someone gets the 'talent' on its own but not the will to work, it really rather takes both for anything good to happen: so much so that the psychological drive to practice the skills surrounding the talent is almost itself part of that talent.Jenny Davidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02295436498255927522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-1147007388192527812006-05-07T09:09:00.000-04:002006-05-07T09:09:00.000-04:00I love this post--and I love that you sidestep the...I love this post--and I love that you sidestep the question of kids and innate talent which is such a boring topic among the compulsive parenting set. One of the things that made me love my husband was spending a few months as a hostess at a restaurant where he cooked and getting to watch him cook. He was just so good at it. Things done well, whatever they are, are such a joy.Beccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002802440403969922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-1147004126687641602006-05-07T08:15:00.000-04:002006-05-07T08:15:00.000-04:00But the real question is why people gravitate to t...But the real question is why people gravitate to the ones they believe are natural born talents?<BR/><BR/>The Mozarts over The Salieris (movie not historical)<BR/><BR/>LeBron James' over Gilbert Arenas' (one straight from high school versus the one who learned the craft in college)<BR/><BR/>Maybe prodigies are percieved to be divine?Larryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00500610956913048369noreply@blogger.com