Talent vs Skill
A woman sits down in her
easy chair. She makes herself comfortable and draws a coffee table up
to her lap. On the coffee table she places a drawing pad, off to one
side on a chair she sets a tin of colored pencils. In her mind she
thinks of the word ayahausca, she says this over and over. She stares
at the the open drawing pad. She tells her self there are no
mistakes, than she closes her eyes and picks a colored pencil from
tin and starts to draw. She keeps saying the word ayahausca over and
over. She repeats this process of closing her eyes and picking a
colored pencil over and over. It takes several days for her to
complete her drawing. She looks at it and highlights a few areas that
have intrigue her. For this image she repeats the process three more
times. The second word she focuses on is Peyeto, the third she is
thinking of a friend, the fourth and final drawing focus is of
herself. She has created works of beauty that will lay a foundation
for an image many years later.
Long before the drawings,
this woman sat at an easel with her oil paint at the ready. She
stared at the canvas, she started with the sky and earth, a brook
came out of the canvas. The final layer turned into a magnificent
tree, that was shaped like a woman with her arm out stretched.
Another layer of the image came into being.
At some point in this
woman's life, words were forming in her mind. It was about thunder,
she began to write out the words, they took shape and had their own
unique form. The end of the pose poem was about horses, which had
started the words forming in her mind. At another time she was
thinking about Mother Earth. Words started to form in her mind about
goddess and there link to the Earth, sure enough as she wrote the
words they began to take form and they had a shape and design to
them. The poem pose about “The Great Goddess” was born. Another
part of the image came into being.
Lastly the woman sat down
at her computer. She needed an image to write about expertise in the
English Composition course she was taking on line. At first she
thought she would write about the five generation family farm of her
cousins that will soon be put up for sale, but that was not really
her area of expertise. In fact she couldn't think of one specific
area of expertise that stood out to her. Than she remember how she
had described herself in one word to a person. She told that person
that the core of her being is creative. The proverbial light bulb
went on, that is it. She is creative, whether or not it be a drawing,
a poem, a photograph, an event,a clay scuplture or a garden. So she
sat down and created the image for her writing. She layered it with
art work and pose that she had done over the years and added the root
word create in some of it forms. This image would lay the foundation
for her argument of talent versus skill.
The Merriam Webster
dictionary defines skill as : a learned power
of doing something competently : a developed
aptitude or ability.(A) Where as talent is defined as :
a characteristic feature, aptitude, or disposition of a person or
animal : the natural endowments of a person. (B)
“The Separation between
talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts.”
“Talent you have naturally.” “Skill is only developed by hours
and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” “I don’t really
view myself as particularly talented.” “Where I excel is
ridiculous, sickening work ethic.” “While the other guys are
sleeping, I am working.” “While the other guys are eating, I am
working.” Will Smith (1)
In the
above Will Smith feels that he has skills that he has worked on. If
he hadn't work hard on developing skills than he would not have been
as successful.
“Good writers don’t rely on inspiration. They don’t use
"talent" as a crutch. They don’t need luck. Instead, they
develop skills.”
Kami M McArthur
1/2/2013 (2)
In
David Farlands Daily kick in the pants Talent vs Skill he starts of
with the above quote. He goes on to start his point with the
following.
As authors, we’ve all read
stories by authors that make us think, “Wow, I wish that I had
his/her talent!” We’re trained to believe that writing
well is somehow . . . mystical. We’re taught that we have to be
born with talent, or perhaps a muse must whisper into our ears. But
good writers don’t rely on inspiration. They don’t use "talent"
as a crutch. They don’t need luck. Instead, they develop skills.(2)
In his article David Farland acknowledges that all of
us have talent. He describes that he didn't have the aptitude for the
mandolin, yet when he work with clay, it came easy to him. He
believes to prefect a craft even if one is talent with it, that it
takes practice through a learned set of skills. He notes that he
spent fourteen hours a day for six months perfecting his writing
skills. Farland concluded that skill is more valuable than talent.
Mike Puglielli is a 5 year creative designer. In his
article titled “Learning your Craft” Talent vs Skill. Mike writes
about talent, but believes skill is equally and more important than
talent like Farland. In his article Mike wrote the following about
talent.
Your
talent is innate. Innate in that, you are born to be artistic. You
have that intrinsic, artistic identity that was there right after
leaving the womb. Talent blossoms, grows, and reveals itself (and its
intentions) early when you’re a child. What’s great about talent,
is that it finds a way—doesn’t matter what opportunities you
have, whatever you’re talented in eventually shows through, and in
this case, designing. Talent, as some say, is “God-given”. (3)
His writes about skill as:
Having
skill is nearly the opposite to having talent. That doesn’t mean it
is a bad thing, I will argue it is the most important, but more on
that later. Skill takes time and effort to develop and is not innate
and skills are more likely measurable and technical. Some qualities
that make someone skillful could, however, be innate; things like
hard work, dedication, persistence, and etc, are all things that help
foster great skill—you could be born with these qualities. But
skill is developed. (3)
Puglielle goes on to explain in his article that
talent will only get you so far. To excel with your talent you need
to work at it. He explains that learning skills will perfect your
talent. Talent can't be relied on for it has a fall off point. It
is at this point that skill takes over, and it is also at his point
that some give up because they can't relie on their talent. Puglielle
believes you don't have to have talent to be a great designer. It
will take lots of skills to become great at it. Talent will only take
you so far.
These two articles by Farland and Puglielle point out
to me that we all can have a certain talent for a certain craft. Yet
is the skills that we learn around our talent that propels us forward
to secede in the field that foster our talent. I am very talented at
creating art. Yet that talent will only take me so far unless I build
the necessary skills to enhance my talent. In someway the articles
point to being successful with talent built by skills. Yet to enjoy
your talent doesn’t mean you don’t' have to be successful or even
skillful. I think of myself as talented but not all that skillful. If
I was successful it would mean that I could make a living from my
talent. As of yet I haven't found that. I think that my talent is
such a board stoked concept it is hard for me to pin it down to one
venture. If I focused on just my writing than I could become skilled
at it. If I focused just on my art work, it probably would take me
places I have yet to imagine.
To circle back around to Coyle's work of “The
Talent Code” the first chapter “The Sweet Spot”.(4) In which
Coyle postulate that talent is not born it is earned. Coyle
explained that one needed to work on the edge of ones ability in
“deep practice” to become talented. It would seem that Coyle was
really explaining skill not talent. If he had titled his book “The
Skill Code”. It may have not sold many copies. The way it was
written was a clever way to attract readers and skillfully explain
skill disgusted as talent. So in that way Coyle is a skillful
writer.
References
(B)http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skill
- Coyle, Daniel (2009). The Talent Code New York:Bantam Books ( Chapter 1 The Sweet Spot.)
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