Talent: Born or Made?

This is another post on the very same topic I’ve been thinking about quite a bit lately: is talent something you’re born with, or something you have to practise for?

I am always fascinated by individuals who excel at something. I often try to find out whether their expertise is due to genetics or due to their nurturing environment.

I did write an earlier post on the case of Rich Brian who has a perfect American accent, which turns out has more to do with him being taught English from an early age rather than having something to do with his musical aptitude. This time, I’ll discuss three more cases that pose the same question of nature vs nurture.

The Singer

In our arm wrestling club, there is this guy in 12th grade who is a phenomenal singer. Of course to my untrained ears, anything halfway decent can be absolutely mind-blowing — but objectively speaking, this kid sings very well. He is in fact regularly invited to perform in musical shows and in bars and cafes.

The question then becomes, is he a natural-born singer? Turns out — he has been singing since he was 6! From a very young age his dad bought home a karaoke system and they would sing daily. His dad is a very good singer too. The kid has had no formal musical training, but he has been practising it for almost 12 years. Now he can sing just about any genres, and he plans to pursue a career in music.

I myself am a horrible singer. I cannot sing to save my life. I hit all the wrong notes. But then — I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually sung. I used to think I’m just not made for this singing thing, but it seems more likely that I’ve just not practised enough.

The Dancer

That night we went to the night club, I was mesmerised by this guy’s dancing. He knows how to move his body in sync with the music. It didn’t look like a professionally choreographed dance either; the guy was just enjoying himself and rocking his body naturally.

At one point I tried to dance and ended up looking like an arthritis patient having a seizure. Again, I had to wonder how the hell do these people just dance so well? They must have been born with this innate sense of rhythm, while some people like me have to live with this stiff board for a body!

Well I proceeded to ask him if he’d had any training in dance. He said no — but, he had been dancing in his room for the longest time. He would watch dance videos on YouTube and followed along. He didn’t have the intention of “practising dancing”; he would just dance.

And there it goes: this guy has no formal training, but he has been dancing all these years. Another case where practice explains the talent.

The Armwrestler

Back to arm wrestling: so I’ve always wondered that if someone is a really strong arm wrestler, could their strength have been developed from the physical nature of their job? For example, mechanics, farmers, butchers, builders are all professions that use their wrist heavily, so naturally they must make good arm wrestlers right?

As I spend more and more time researching this answer, the answer seems to be heavily in favour of the “practice” side of it. As in, having a job where you work your wrist intensely can be a good start, but if you want to truly excel, you have to dedicate years to training arm wrestling specifically. There is no natural here.

One of the strongest arm wrestlers in Vietnam right now is a butcher. This guy kills and prepares pork. I thought his power came from him chopping meat on the daily with a big-ass cleaver. Makes sense right? But nope — turns out he is obsessed with arm wrestling. He trains with weights every day and he would go to table practices on a regular basis. That is how he becomes strong — by training arm wrestling intensely and consistently. His butcher job probably helps a bit, but not that much.

Any other case where an arm wrestler I’ve met is really strong, it’s almost always due to their arm wrestling-specific training. I have yet to meet anyone who just shows up to the table and whoops everybody’s arses without any training.

Really, expertise all boils down to consistent practice. Can someone be a true natural at something? Perhaps, but I have to see it to believe.

Child Prodigies

Okay, so what about child prodigies? The kids who master advanced mathematics and produce genius works of art before they turn 10? How do we explain this?

I did some research into this topic. Yes, it seems that children who are labelled a “prodigy” often have these two innate qualities that make them standout from the rest:

• They have exceptional working memory. I’m not sure exactly what this is from a neurological standpoint, but it seems like they can store knowledge, retrieve knowledge, and consequently apply knowledge and process concepts much more efficiently than the normal child, and hence their rapid ability to acquire understanding of any subject. The working memory of a child prodigy is measured to be in the 99.9th percentile of the population.
• They have the drive to focus intensely on a given domain. Most kids tend to lose their attention quickly, but child prodigies can be all-consumed by a subject — music, art, maths, physics. The subject matter lives inside their head and consumes all of their waking thoughts.

So apparently a true prodigy is a combination of these two factors. The first factor is absolutely innate — no question about it. Some people just have an easier time learning abstract concepts than others.

The second factor though, is something 100% created by the nurturing environment. We have people like Mozart whose father was a composer and music teacher who taught him music from a very young age, or that 4-year-old Russian girl Bella who speaks 7 languages fluently thanks to both of her linguist parents who immersed her in languages from when she was born. If it weren’t for such supportive and intense environments, neither of these people would have realised their potential in the first place.

So the scientific consensus seems to be that prodigies are born, then made. That seems to be the most accurate assessment.

Final Thoughts

I think it’s undeniable that at the elite level, a massive degree of innate abilities have to exist. World-class sprinters have to possess a ton of fast-twitch muscle fibres (you can’t train for this), or Mr. Olympia-calibre bodybuilders must have aesthetically pleasing muscle insertions and their body must respond well to steroids. Without these attributes they cannot reach the highest levels of their domains.

But for most of us, to reach a decent level of competence, consistent practice seems to be the ultimate answer. I have yet to witness a case of someone who is just good at something without at least a good amount of practice. Doesn’t exist, ever. If they’re good at it, they inevitably have trained for it to some degree.

The debate can end here. If I come across someone who is really good at something, I’ll still be asking them about their practice and training. Always fascinating to find out.