 Poster: A snowHead
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| fatbob wrote: |
| I think natural talent is far more relevant to sports. |
I don't agree. There are plenty of "trademen" who despite doing the hours will never be really good at their trade or profession. They don't have the natural talent.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Talent or laziness/lack of motivation to improve/trade off for "good enough"? Trades and professions are all about maximising your return per unit of work not perfection.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| fatbob wrote: |
| I think natural talent is far more relevant to sports |
One of the chapter in Syed's book is an attempt (pretty well done in my view) to debunk the "natural talent " argument - he debates "what is natural talent anyway" and it is a good debate
He puts the lots of hours, focussed practice, and an important "coach" or similar.
In debunking the talent myth, he talks about thePlgar family. The 3 polgar daughters are world champion chess players, and not only that, they have excelled even against teh top men ches players. Mr Polgar also wanted to debunk the talent myth - so he sought out a suitor, and eventually met a female colleague and persuaded her to marry him, and bring up a family with the intention of making them world beaters in some activity; they chose chess -NOTE,i said they CHOSE chess, Pogar and his wife were not chess experts by any long shot - that was exectly why they chose it. He started his daughtersoff very early, specifically to get the 10,00 (or whaetever number it is) started as soon as possible. The results are extraordinary. A good read.
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sev112, I don't know the Polgar story but did the parents have some sort of intellectual/academic leanings/high IQs? To be neutral did he and his wife adopt the kids from separate orphanages? While I absolutely don't believe training is not very important I find it hard to believe that the existence of sporting families and/or successful multisport athletes isn't indicative of some sort of genetic advantage even if its only manifest in pure physical attributes/reflexes etc. How did the Neville family produce 3 England internationals - pure hothousing alone?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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sev112,
| Quote: |
One of the chapter in Syed's book is an attempt (pretty well done in my view) to debunk the "natural talent " argument - he debates "what is natural talent anyway" and it is a good debate
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I have not read the book, but have read him argue the same thing in a magazine article, I have to say I was wholly unconvinced by his argument, it was polemical and lacking any scientific thought IMO.
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For me, it just seems like we can boil it down to "practise a lot to be better at stuff" - genetics provides a base to improve on and the curve on which you'll improve. Random numbers of hours or amounts of focus are more than a bit silly - for a start, it depends on the size of the field you're competing in.
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FAQ
But it is an extremely interesting point - is it talent, or just focussed hot housing from a young age by a knwoeldgeable coach - i think Syed's view is that what POlgar Snr provided was the focus on the coaching.
