Thread: Does Natural Talent Exist?

I propose a realistic, yet fictitious, scene for you: a master collects 10 students from around a country, or varying regions with the same spoken language, and trains them all for eight hours a day, for a total of three months. What does he teach them? To draw in concrete fashion with attention to shading and details.

Let's assume that all 10 were reasonably tested to show about the same inability to draw beyond basic disproportionate body outlines and basic asymmetric "natural shapes." All of these students had similar IQ scores, no prominent mental or physical disabilities, and had no history of attention or motor skill dysfunctions. Now let's also assume this master showed each student approximately the same amount of attention and effort to keep them practicing and gave them equal amounts of time to individual training.

The ultimate test was being able to do "figure drawing" of a subject with reasonable focus on identical details within a pencil-shading environment.

In the end, three could draw an indisputably accurate depiction of the person at hand. Three more could draw a reasonable facsimile of this person with slight disproportionate parts and varying degrees of shading. Finally, the last four had rapidly degrading degrees of similarity to the subject and even one was unable to grasp nose/lip/chin interactions.

Why would you say the last four students were unable to draw based only on this account? Is it because of lack of the same naturally inborn talents, or would you believe there was some biased parts of the story in how equally they were treated or their mental/physical conditions?

I for one, completely believe that some people who practice along side you on the same subject will, inevitably, be superior to you, and some inferior to you, in certain skills and abilities for reasons beyond your control; and that these cannot be overcome through hard work - only that an acceptable level of skill can be achieved by those with lesser talents working several times as hard to reach the same milestones.

Just look at classical ballet. Twins could study side by side and one still be better than the other.

Theory of multiple intelligences, anyone? Everyone has some inherent strengths and weaknesses that are modified by experience.

hey it one of those thing that cant be proven or not proven. it truly based on your ideaof the subject

I believe that natural talent does exist. Some people are just better at some things than other people in a way that can't be explained by amount of practice or effort.

Yes, there's a thing called natural talent...

I showed the same thing to 5 different people. It was definitely something all 5 have never seen or done before.

One person got it in minutes. The other four... nope. Couldn't do it.

natural talent does exist. someone can try as hard as they can to become a musician, but if they don't have the talent for it, they'll never touch the crowds. someone can try as hard as they can to be a programmer, but if they simply cannot understand recursion or pointers, they'll never be as effective as someone who can.

that being said, talent is still secondary to effort. a recent study showed that kids that are lauded for their smarts will tend to shy away from difficult tasks, think "effort" is something to be avoided, and believe that intelligence is something that is fixed. On the other hand, kids that are praised for effort will believe that intelligence is something that grows, will not be afraid to put in effort and welcome challenges.

in short, if you have kids, even if they have natural talent don't focus on that. reward them for effort.

I has natural talent.

Originally Posted by echoblaze

natural talent does exist. someone can try as hard as they can to become a musician, but if they don't have the talent for it, they'll never touch the crowds. someone can try as hard as they can to be a programmer, but if they simply cannot understand recursion or pointers, they'll never be as effective as someone who can.

that being said, talent is still secondary to effort. a recent study showed that kids that are lauded for their smarts will tend to shy away from difficult tasks, think "effort" is something to be avoided, and believe that intelligence is something that is fixed. On the other hand, kids that are praised for effort will believe that intelligence is something that grows, will not be afraid to put in effort and welcome challenges.

in short, if you have kids, even if they have natural talent don't focus on that. reward them for effort.

=_= fing pointers >_>

Other than that, well said. There is, imho, such thing as naturel talent however naturel talent rarely makes up for determination and hard work

I think some people are gifted in some things, while others have other things they might excel at. I for example, suck at drawing (and my handwriting sucks) no matter how hard I try. On the other hand, I'm better at mathematics/academics than arts. I'm quite sure every person has something that makes them different from other individuals.