• slaacaa@lemmy.world
    8·
    13 hours ago

    “You’re lucky you had parents who could afford: a piano, an apartment big enough for a piano, time for you to practice besides your studies, and maybe even a music teacher”

  • Schal330@lemmy.world
    34·
    22 hours ago

    There is merit in practice, but natural talent is very real. One person could spend years practicing something that someone else picks up and surpasses that person in a year.

    • Droechai@lemm.ee
      31·
      22 hours ago

      Im a low low ELO player but enjoy chess. I teached a kid how to play on a summer event, and the kid, probably around 10 years old, never did the same error twice and easily beat me on the third day (around 5 games a day vs me and who knows how many against the other event leaders)

      Really humbling, but I think I helped kindle a new hobby for the kid

      • PeteWheeler@lemmy.world
        10·
        21 hours ago

        You did good. Fostering and developing the younger generation.

        I compete in video games (smash bros ult) and there is a lot of humbling experiences when you are unable to beat a child that is 10 years younger than you every week for 2 straight years.

    • PoopingCough@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      20 hours ago

      No doubt, but imo “natural talent” is way less common than just people who have put in the work, at least for musicians in my experience. For every person i know that just started rippin shit from when they were 3 years old there’s like 20 more folks who have just put in the hours. I also think some people who seem to have that natural talent it’s more like they just were immersed in that environment from birth. Music is a lot like a language; you can always learn a new language as an adult but people that grow up speaking it because of their environment will make it look effortless.

  • PeteWheeler@lemmy.world
    14·
    21 hours ago

    Talent is hard to define. In my opinion talent = unobserved practice/study.

    This picture gets the concept across pretty well. But it can also happen with kids that “happen” to be good at something. Like sports. Was that kid a natural at baseball, or did he just watch a lot of baseball games and played backyard baseball a shit ton so he just knew the rules/strats before any of the other kids?

    Some people learn faster than others yes, but learning in itself is a skill.

    Maybe this isn’t true, but it is definitely 100% more effective than assuming talent is outside of your control or an obstacle that can not be cleared.

    • bpev@lemmy.world
      3·
      13 hours ago

      Reminds me, Malcom Gladwell’s “Outliers” book had a section about his interesting observation that pro hockey players birthdays are skewed to the earlier months of the year. He attributed that to a kind of butterfly effect:

      1. youth hockey leagues set league cutoffs by age
      2. the slightly older kids are bigger and stronger
      3. because they do better at the beginning, they get more playing time, more encouragement, maybe go to more “all-star” kind of things, where they might get extra coaching
      4. eventually those kids actually just are better, because they had a better environment to grow.

      I mean idk how accurate this exact instance is, but I feel it’s a good thought experiment in thinking of how seemingly insignificant parts of the environment can impact whatever talent is. The whole nature vs nurture thing.

  • hark@lemmy.world
    6·
    19 hours ago

    “Talent” could also be an affinity for practicing that skill. I don’t think I’m exceptional at programming, but I got good at it because I enjoyed it and that was enough to drive me to develop that skill. There are other skills I didn’t develop as much because I didn’t feel as driven to pursue them.

  • go $fsck yourself@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    20 hours ago

    To be fair, to be able to practice regularly for so long to gain skill is rather lucky. Also, not all practice is equal, so having someone teach you to practice more effectively is a privilege. Either that or practicing on your own in an unguided manner and still being able to gain skill takes talent.

    Yeah, that’s lucky and very well could require being lucky enough to have some sort of talent along the path.

    • udon@lemmy.world
      3·
      13 hours ago

      This. It’s easier to practice/study if you don’t share a room with 3 siblings and don’t need to spend your off time supporting the family in various ways.

      Also, don’t get mad at that person trying to give you a compliment

  • jsomae@lemmy.ml
    2·
    20 hours ago

    In my region, people use “talented” as a compliment, not necessarily to indicate their skill was not hard-won.