Talent is Overrated
We tend to think that if people are good at something, it’s because they just have a god-given talent. In a very interesting article by the guys behind “Freakonomics”, there is a body of evidence that suggests that isn’t 
true at all.
They set out to answer a question, why is it that most elite soccer players are born in the first three months of the year? It turns out that practice, and a very specific kind of practice, holds the key to success in any endevour. If we want to get good at something, we should set specific goals, obtain immediate feedback of how we’re doing, and concentrate on technique more than outcome as we practice.
Half Sigma | Posted on May 10th, 2006 at 6:18 am
It turns out that the correlation between soccer players and birth month is bogus.
http://www.halfsigma.com/2006/05/freakonomics_co.html
Jon | Posted on May 10th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Thanks for the catch, but it doesn’t explain how people get better at the memory game the more they train. Or explain the difference between someone who has talent and practices, and those who have talent and choose not to.
But bogus data is bogus data.
Half Sigma | Posted on May 10th, 2006 at 11:10 am
Practice + talent is better than talent alone.
Practice + no talent is better than no talent alone.
People with no talent will quickly get discouraged from practicing because it’s not fun to put effort into something and observe that everyone else is still doing it better than you.