freelance paradigm

Even though I often write and talk about creativity, I never said much about talent. There is a reason why: it is damn hard to define it. General definition would be that one is talented when one presents skills that are far above average for one's age. The problem is that those skills may very well be a result of huge amount of work, lucky circumstances (being born in the right family, having stimulating circle of friends, and so on) and many other complex things, including genes. Probably it is influenced by a combination of everything mentioned and even more by the things we couldn't possibly think of. So how to talk about something so elusive? Here is my solution.

The author of this video says it takes on average about 10.000 hours of practice to achieve a notable skill. I don't remember exactly where, but somewhere I read that to reach the level of grandmaster in chess you need about 20.000 hours of training (the exact number is hard to prove and it doesn't matter anyway... let's just take it metaphorically). But there's a catch! Not just any 20.000! This is an over-simplification. It is as if we are saying that to win a chess match you need to make about 50-70 moves. True - but not just any moves! They have to be the right ones, from the very beginning. Especially at the beginning!

I agree that achieving mastery takes a HUGE amount of work - but where talented separate from the average is in the way they are playing. They are doing the right things from the very start. Every artist has to move trough different stages, one has to make a lot of mistakes to learn the right way of doing things, but gifted ones move trough that phases very quickly and can even skip a few. They have a deeper insight into the game they play. When I play chess I can rarely have that kind of insight into my game. I am smart enough to see my mistakes from the past, but not smart enough to see clearly the present or even the future stages of the game. I believe it is very much the same in art, music, science, life or other complex games. Talented people just see deeper and move faster. They make a much better use of those 10.000 hours, just like a talented chess player makes a better use of his 50 moves, no matter the external circumstances. Of course they might be inclined to take larger risks or present much less fear (and have a few lucky picks with lucky outcomes), but that is beyond this argument.