Interview with princec

General Discussions
#21

I do agree with that.
However, it is undeniable that some people need less hard work to master one skill than other people.

And of course there are physical limitations/boosts.

Nicolo Paganini was a hell of a violinist not only because he practiced, but also because (argueably) he had Marfan syndrome (which made his fingers larger and thinner). And if you have Parkinson’s disease you probably won’t be a very good painter.

But, apart from that, I really believe anything is achievable if you practice enough.

#22

Talent also enhances the speed you learn stuff in. I play Guitar with all my love for about 1 and a half year. I think I’m not that good to start a band (well main reson to learn guitar is to play covers of game music xD). A friend of mine just HAS talent. He plays like a Pro and only plays like a half year.

Of course you can learn a lot by brute forcing it, but that makes not sense to me. Why would I but myself to work for something I’m just not good at. I’m good at programming and a like it. I think the “like it” part is the most important part. If you do something and you do it all day long without even noticing what time it is you probatly should go with that.

Drawing is a good example. You can tell yourself all day long that you learned by hard. But go on DeviantArt and all your self-esteem is gone for good xD (Altough I get pushed by better work then mine…). Like Riven said. There is a certain max level your can achievement if you don’t have that much talent. I assume I never get to the point where I play like Jimi Hendrix but that’s okay xD

#23

Well if I draw Artworks every single day, for years, I will, undeniable, get very experienced at it.

I say hard work > talent, if it exists.
I don’t even believe that it does biologically. You are not born with skills other than instinctive ones.

Exposition and practice gets you good at things.
In my life at least, I was never very good at things I had never done before - and I was not bad I things I did a lot.

#24

This is great stuff for self-help books and such, but we all have things that we’re good at and things that we’re not. We might be mistaken about what these things are (though lack of exposure and practice) but that doesn’t really change anything. And IHMO this is a good thing.

#25

My personal take on it is that absolutely is limited, whatsoever, in what they can achieve, if they put the effort in to be good at it; at least as far as cognitive and dextrous skills are concerned. I’ve seen this countless times. What talent appears to be is the speed at which we progress from beginner to expert.

As for myself, I have little talent at games design, and I’ve almost deliberately fossilised my talents for what some programmers perceive to be the most important aspect programming (“being able to pick up new languages quickly is soooooo important and any good programmer blah blah blah”) in favour of what I consider being the most important aspect of programming (actually being very good at one language).

In another 10 years I hope to be pretty good at games design. Helps that I’m doing it for a living now.

Cas :slight_smile:

#26

Its not about which hammer you use, its the amount of care you put into building that bird house that determines how good it turns out to be and how effective it will be at attracting birds to nest in it.

Whether ‘care’ translates to talent or hard work… I think someone with talent puts in hard work where someone with no talent will just slack off trying to cut corners.

#27

There have been a lot of people that worked very hard to learn something and miserably failed, because they simply couldn’t learn/master it to the level that was required.

There may be a relation between having poor skills and the likeliness to slack off, but that certainly isn’t the rule.

#28

hard work > talent

Yeah, you could do hard work. But, it surely helps to be around talented people if you want success. I mean, look at customer service. Not everyone wants to learn how to communicate with people. However, some just are better at speaking to people than others. Same thing with programming. It does take a lot of hard work. You can spend 2 years learning Java and master it to the same strength someone with talent learned in a month. I believe people have talents at certain tasks, and can grasp concepts faster than others at certain things. Learning the hard way is a great experience, but I don’t believe that you’d ever get as far as those who are naturally gifted.

Hard work is nice if you have the time, but the amount of time you’ll take trying to be Bach, Albert Einstein, Picasso, and Stephen Hawking would probably take you an entire lifetime. Talent speeds up hard work by making it easier. I find it better just to surround myself with the talented and listen to them. Sometimes you are able to pick up things a whole lot faster that way.

#29

You’re confusing talent with interest/affinity.

#30

Talent is just like pole position in race. If you have one you’re a little bit in front.