[b]A friend asked me to post this for him. Not sure which section this should be on

TaLenT
Definition:
1). Innate ability, aptitude, or faculty, esp when unspecified; above average ability.
2). A natural ability to excel at a duty or action.
3). A special, often creative natural ability or aptitude.
Definition been established,where does this ''talent'' reside and does it really exist??.
Let's take a look at some factors.
1). Human anatomy:
The human body consists of 600 to 700 individual muscles,300-350 bones at birth and 205 at adulthood,5 sense organs,a complex brain,11 systems,78 organs,a pair of feet and arms and so much more.
All things being equal,each human possesses the above stated qualities,that underlined out shows the fact we are capable of achieving whatever feat any human can possibly achieve only if the human body is fine tuned and disciplined to the task set out to accomplish.
2). Environment:
This is the major ''potter'' of the ''clay'' of an individual's ability. This involves the ''forces'' that ''beats the clay'' into shape. One of such forces is the family.
a). The Family:
The family plays a pivotal role in the development of an individuals ''talent''. Most of the world's ''gifted'' individuals are known to be surrounded by a family whose roots are synonymous with the ''talent'' exhibited by the individual. At the ''moulding'' stage,the individual is exposed to a vast collection of the material,making the individual develop skills in respect to what the individual has been exposed to.
b). Survival:
As it is often said ''necesseity is the mother of invention''. Next to the family in terms of ''talent'' moulding is the need to survive. A close look at the strata of class (upper class aka the rich,the middle class aka well to do,lower class aka the masses) you will discover that the lower class contains more individuals with ''multiple talent'' than any other class. This is because of the need to survive. The individuals in this class are not born with the luxury of life,thereby making them to make themselves versatile in almost all aspects of life inorder to survive. Look closer at the background of famous people,you will notice more than 80% grew up in the lower class.
3). The Divine:
Genesis 1:26 ''let us make man in our image and LIKENESS. . .''. Lets compare,humans love God loves,humans hate God hates,humans get jealous God gets jealous (exodus 20:5) humans have ''talent'' God doesn't have talent. If who we are modeled after doesn't possess ''talent'' and doesn't also proclaim we do possess ''talent'',you can't help but wonder where the idea of talent was gotten from.
4). Practice:
''practice makes perfect'' is an anthem we all are too familiar with but tend to overlook it. We will look at two aspects,the physical and mental.
a). The Physical:
Sports will be the main anchor point since everyone can easily relate to it and it is also a means of measuring the ''limit'' of the human body. Have you ever wondered why records are always broken when it seems that is the ''limit'' of the human body. This is as a result of the non existance of talent and the power of will and practice. Perfect examples of sports where this is evident is in marathon and athletics. It follows a pattern of creating-lasting-breaking (CLB) records. It starts with an individual creating a record which lasts for a while then is later broken. The new record follows the same pattern of CLB for years,and each time a record is made we hear things like ''this is an awesome talent,this is the limit no one can break,can this be ever beaten?'' but a while after these records have been made,they become broken. Does this mean the ''talent'' of the previous record setter didnt possess enough quality than the ''talent'' of the individual that broke it? Or does it mean ''talent'' is now qualified only to be a subject of increase or decrease via practice?.
b) The Mental:
More often than not,people call and categorize others as dull,brainless,stupid etc forgetting the fact that we all have the same brain type,function and mechanism,needless to say no one is stupid,dull or has inability to understand and absorb things. Applying practice to the cognitive aspect of the human sphere requires more dedication than any other thing (maybe religion requires more). Such dedication is using a dictionary to learn new words and their uses. If that can be practiced with the strictest discipline,that individual will be better equipped vocabulary wise than any of their counter parts and by so doing,the individual will be labelled with the ''genius'' tag. Another example is the life of Einstein,he was considered a ''dullard'' but later became world famous for his mathematical equations and theories,that shows you no one is dull,all we have to do is fill up the space in the brain.
The height/extent of ones abilities development through practice is often influenced by two factors,one is the love you have for what you are practicing and proof of self worth.
5) Psychology:
We have been taught and made to believe for so long that ''talent'' exists. I will explain this point with a story.
''A man who is used to the highway speed limit(75-80mph) bought a car and decided to test run it on an autobahn road(germany) to feel its speed,he is accompanied by the owner of the company that manufactured the vehicle. When he got his vehicle on the road,he started slowly and gradually accelerated,after a minutes he was at his ''top speed'' and was very excited about the speed of the car. Suddenly another driver who happens to be a racer drove a car which is exactly the same model with his pass him with a greater amount of speed almost twice of his. Surprised at which the other driver overtook him when on top speed,he turned to the manufacturer and complained that the manufacturer sold him a fake car''. Time to draw the analogy between the story and talent.
The highway driver=individual A.
The racer driver=individual B.
Company owner=the Divine Being (God).
Car=human body.
Different speed attained by each individual=psychology of limit placed by soceity (talent).
Autobahn road=the possibility of what can be achieved. I will leave you without an explanation for you to understand it yourself and be free from the barrier called ''talent''.
And what we call ''talent'' are abilities that are possessed via natural state,made to increase in quality and expand or decrease. Which is subject to change to the above reasons [/b]

lol sup Chi,
Its a nice topic but do you think its in the wrong section??

[b]Nice, well-thought out and informative post, Natasha.

However, I disagree with some of your points.

2) Environment isn't and CAN NEVER be the major potter that beats the clay; it's part of it but not the MAJOR. An environment has every ability and can actually do that but the 'how' is from you. You can read up soft determinism in psychology.

A) I totally don't agree with this. Yes, we have case scenarios of families with dominant talents but how about those without? What's the percentage?

B) I don't get the "multiple talents" part. Let's just say - and this is where the environment comes in - that the environment is a decisive factor in the survival of the development of any talent of an individual. We have lower class, middle class and upper class. Say, I have the ability to design clothes and I find myself in the lower class, the percentage of making it to the middle class is far higher than making it to the upper class.

C) Let US make man in our IMAGE and LIKENESS is a sentence with a deeper meaning as all verses of the Bible are.

"Then God said, “Let us make mankind in
our image, in our likeness, so that they may
rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in
the sky, over the livestock and all the wild
animals, and over all the creatures that
move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own
image, in the image of God he created
them; male and female he created
them."

You said, "humans have talent" but God who created them doesn't have. Humans eat. Does God eat? Humans have sex? Does God have sex?

Okay, let's bring it down to scientists vs robots. Why can't scientists infuse all functions of humans in robots? [/b]

Talent,...it's a blessing which is perfected with little hardwork(development.


See this instance, I can sing perfectly with a sweet voice, (born with it), I have an edge, all I need is a little work.

But you, you that you cant sing well naturally,...you will develop your voice for years, without it leveling up with mine. You dig?

*clears throat* @ mr. Jekyll & Hyde,are the claws and fur of a grizzly bear and polar bear the same? Are fresh water and salt water fishes the same? Answer that question then you will agree with me that environment is the major factor. Note the difference in environment between the grizzly and polar,fresh water fishes and salt water fishes.

For a) i don't understand the ''how about those without?'' if you are refering to without a family then i suggest you take a look at the second factor under environment,the survival factor.

B) for the 'multi talent' you don't understand,the more your need for survival,the wider your ability to do things. Have you noticed the lower class children in most cases do better mentally and physically than the children from the high class,not because the high class kids cannot perform but because of the mentality of not having to hustle to survive unlike the lower class children,thereby leading to the factor survival stated above earlier.

C) the last one is quite simple,God is not in flesh,He is a spirit,so is your soul,take out your body (that is your flesh) from the equation,do you think what you stated earlier would matter??



And @ emmyk,a little extension in my vocal cords and voice therapy will make me sing better than a million times