Talent is Overrated-Ask Mozart or Tiger

Walter Shurden, in his monthly dispatch, writes of two authors giving their variation on a theme:

Genes or Grind
In an article titled Genius: The Modern View in the May 1 issue of The New York Times, Brooks weighs in on the issue of whence comes talent.

Is it predestination or practice? Genes or grinding work?

Did Mozart and Tiger come hard-wired that way or did they get that way by practice, practice, practice?

Brooks opts for the latter.

Construction Site
He closes his op-ed piece with these two lines. “We construct ourselves through behavior.”

As Daniel Coyle observes in his book, The Talent Code, it’s not who you are, it’s what you do.”

The subtitle to Coyle’s book is Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s Grown.

Thanks to Walter ‘Buddy’ Shurden for this story. Let me know if you want to be added to his meaty monthly email which I always read as soon as it arrives.

Related
More stories on Tiger.
More on the discipline exercised by Mozart.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “We construct ourselves through behavior.”