A Star is Made: Where does talent really come from?
Reviewing a new 900 page academic book The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance that will be published this month, Freakonomics authors report some very interesting findings.
(I highly recommend you read this piece if you have an interest in finding out how a star is made in any discipline.)
Here are three conclusions from this massive work:
1. The trait we call talent is highly overrated.
That is, expert performers – whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming – are nearly always made, not born. And yes,
2. Practice does make perfect. And last, my personal favorite:
3. When it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love – because if you don’t love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good.
They add, “Most people naturally don’t like to do things they aren’t ‘good’ at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don’t possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin.”
But the truth is this:
“What they really...