The Expert Mind 395
Vicissidude writes "Teachers in sports, music, and other fields tend to believe that talent matters and that they know it when they see it. In fact, they appear to be confusing ability with precocity. There is usually no way to tell, from a recital alone, whether a young violinist's extraordinary performance stems from innate ability or from years of Suzuki-style training. The preponderance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born. In fact, it takes approximately a decade of heavy labor to master any field. Even child prodigies, such as Gauss in mathematics, Mozart in music, and Bobby Fischer in chess, must have made an equivalent effort, perhaps by starting earlier and working harder than others. It is no coincidence that the incidence of chess prodigies multiplied after László Polgár published a book on chess education. The number of musical prodigies underwent a similar increase after Mozart's father did the equivalent two centuries earlier."
Re:the same thing (Score:2, Informative)
Interesting, but a little one sided (Score:2, Informative)
Print Version: 1 page (Score:3, Informative)
In case anyone else prefers one, nearly ad-free, page [scientificamerican.com] over 6 skinny pages full of blinky bits.
Re:the same thing (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Uhh, sorta. (Score:2, Informative)
A podcast interview with the author is available (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Partial credit (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Of course (Score:3, Informative)
Your view of things agrees with some of the available resesarch [indiana.edu] on who tends to be more successful:
Re:Give me a break (Score:2, Informative)
These quotes are all true (Einstein is making a very valid point about his methods). I'll try making my point in a different way - the quotes are from people who *also* had the massive talent. Which they naturally are modest about. In some ways, yes, these are people like you and me. But on the other hand they have talent which you or I do not. Let me take Einstein as an example because I am a physicist. I have put in a heck of a lot of work and I have enough talent to have a decent career in this field. But could I get to Einstein's level? No. Nor could I get to the level of the people one level down from that. With equal levels of effort and dedication, they just leave me behind. To talk to, as I have, someone like Neville Mott and see how quickly they grasp new ideas that I have spent years on is to realise that there is such a thing as talent. I have a some, but others have more.
This isn't a negative thing, nor is it a cop out. I still am happy and enjoy working hard to get many satisfying results. I just hate the idea that the fact I'm not in the running for a nobel prize and never will be is taken by so many people as equivalent to me not being as hard-working as those who are in the running.