{"id":122628,"date":"2024-02-05T08:53:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=122628"},"modified":"2024-02-05T11:34:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T15:34:07","slug":"the-talent-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-talent-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Talent Myth: Why Talent Has Nothing to Do With It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is talent a myth? What makes someone good at something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The talent myth is the idea that inherent talent dictates how well you will perform, and it has been shown to be false. Instead, practice plays a much more important role in determining how much someone will excel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on for more on what makes someone excellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-talent-doesn-t-adequately-explain-excellent-performance\">Talent Doesn\u2019t Adequately Explain Excellent Performance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While excellent performance is popularly attributed to talent, <strong>there\u2019s little empirical evidence that talent even exists, let alone that it\u2019s the determining factor in excellent performance. <\/strong>In fact, the lives of excellent performers tend to <em>contradict <\/em>the talent myth. Even in artistic fields (in which many people believe talent is a major factor), research shows that most excellent performers don\u2019t start being excellent until <em>after <\/em>they begin formal training. If they displayed excellent performance at an unusually young age, it was because their parents encouraged their abilities\u2014or even began their formal training\u2014from an early age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, <strong>the quality of a person\u2019s performance actually depends on how many hours they\u2019ve spent practicing<\/strong>\u2014specifically <em>deliberately <\/em>practicing, which we\u2019ll define in the next section. The more hours spent practicing, the better a person\u2019s performance. Excellence is rare because few people are willing or able to spend enough time practicing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>How Much of Performance Quality Is Determined by Hours Spent Practicing?<\/strong><br><br>How <em>much <\/em>of your performance quality depends on the hours you\u2019ve spent practicing? Anders Ericsson, who developed the theory of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/deliberate-practice-definition\/\">deliberate practice<\/a>, estimates that deliberate practice&nbsp; accounts for around <a href=\"https:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/blogs\/freakonomics\/pdf\/DeliberatePractice%28PsychologicalReview%29.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">80% of variation between excellent and mediocre performers<\/a>. However, other researchers say it\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/repository.rice.edu\/server\/api\/core\/bitstreams\/5c97be46-9886-4b8a-8010-91eb62914588\/content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">closer to 20%<\/a>.<br><br>Instead of proposing <em>talent <\/em>as the true determining factor, however, they suggest that a combination of factors, such as your general intelligence and the strength of your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/improve-working-memory-moonwalking-with-einstein\/\">working memory<\/a>, can account for the remaining variation in performance quality. This suggests that the rarity of excellence isn\u2019t just because people aren\u2019t willing or able to practice. It may also be influenced by your genetics and neurological makeup\u2014for instance, some research shows that <a href=\"https:\/\/repository.rice.edu\/server\/api\/core\/bitstreams\/5c97be46-9886-4b8a-8010-91eb62914588\/content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">general intelligence is inheritable<\/a>, while your working memory <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/working-memory-how-you-keep-things-ldquo-in-mind-rdquo-over-the-short-term\/#:~:text=The%20rise%20and%20fall%20of%20working%20memory%20capacity%20over%20a%20lifespan%20is%20thought%20to%20be%20related%20to%20the%20normal%20development%20and%20degradation%20of%20the%20prefrontal%20cortex%20in%20the%20brain%2C\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">develops and degrades along with your prefrontal cortex<\/a>.<br><br>These researchers also noted that deliberate practice had the <em>most <\/em>influence in artistic fields and sports\u2014in other words, the performances of artists and athletes improved the most after beginning training. While Colvin says this is proof that talent isn\u2019t as major a factor as many people think, the researchers take a different approach. They say it proves that <em>practice <\/em>isn\u2019t as important as Ericsson claimed because, even in these most-impacted fields, practice can only account for 26% of improvement.<br><br>Finally, the researchers address how practicing at a young age influences performance. Some frame this as a head start\u2014people who start practicing early can accumulate enough hours of deliberate practice to be excellent at a younger age. In contrast, the researchers suggest that practice may be more <em>effective<\/em> for children. One study found that people who started practicing at a young age performed better than their counterparts <em>even<\/em> when controlling for deliberate practice. This suggests that it may be easier for children\u2019s developing brains to acquire complex skills, similar to how they can learn languages faster than adults.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-different-perspectives-on-talent\">Different Perspectives on Talent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/first-break-all-the-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>First, Break All the Rules<\/em><\/a><em>,<\/em> Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman offer a slightly different perspective on talent. They describe talents <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/first-break-all-the-rules\/chapters-1-2#what-is-talent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as recurring thoughts, feelings, or behaviors that affect how you think and see the world.<\/a> For instance, they count empathy, ambition, and adaptability as talents. These talents are developed, rather than inherent, but they stop developing at a young age and can\u2019t be changed after that point. Thus, Buckingham and Coffman agree with the popular definition that your talent (or lack thereof) dictates how well you can perform: If you don\u2019t already have a talent that\u2019s essential in a specific role, you won\u2019t be able to develop it and thus won\u2019t be truly successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast, Malcolm Gladwell doesn\u2019t challenge the popular definition of talent in <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/outliers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Outliers<\/em><\/a>, but he does suggest that it\u2019s only <em>part <\/em>of the reason people achieve excellence. <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/outliers#part-1-opportunity-is-key-to-success\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Your individual attributes give you the <em>potential <\/em>to succeed in a particular area, but your circumstances decide if you reach that potential<\/a>, he says. Thus, excellence may be rare because its two main factors (your talents and circumstances) rely on chance. Gladwell adds that your parents greatly influence your circumstances, which could explain why excellence seems inheritable: If your parents were excellent performers, you may have a better chance of being one too because they know how to tailor your circumstances to help you excel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is talent a myth? What makes someone good at something? The talent myth is the idea that inherent talent dictates how well you will perform, and it has been shown to be false. Instead, practice plays a much more important role in determining how much someone will excel.&nbsp; Read on for more on what makes someone excellent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":122629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,43],"tags":[1392],"class_list":["post-122628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motivation","category-self-improvement","tag-talent-is-overrated","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Talent Myth: Why Talent Has Nothing to Do With It - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The talent myth is the misunderstanding that the talent you\u2019re born with determines how well you will perform skills. 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