People believe they’re good at drawing…or bad at drawing
How this this crazy notion come about? How did we get it into our heads that we were good or bad at something? I’ll tell you how.
Let’s take drawing, because most people simply can’t draw…
So why can’t they draw? Is it because they’re not talented? Let’s see, shall we?
Imagine a skill you’re good at: Like walking around a banana peel, for instance.
Imagine someone put five banana peels in your path.
Or ten. Or twenty-five. Or even fifty.
Would you be able to avoid the banana peel, and walk right along?
Silly question, eh? But what’s the banana peel got to do with your brain?
The brain recognised the danger of the peel. It recognised that the peel could create damage.
You could slip; fall; hurt yourself; even die.
So the brain pays attention. It prevents you from stepping on the peel in the future.
Drawing, on the other hand, doesn’t cause you to slip; fall or hurt yourself.
So your brain has no need to pay attention.
Yet, imagine you did a drawing as a child.
Imagine that every time you did that drawing you were slapped.
Not just slapped hard across the face. But ridiculed. And punished.
What are the chances you’d become really outstanding at drawing?
Pretty slim, huh?
So let’s take the exact opposite. Let’s say you did the drawing, and your mother was really excited. She showed it to everyone. She told you (and told the world) how talented you were. She brought you more crayons. More paper. More encouragement. And despite being ‘lousy’ at drawing, she felt no intimidation when showing you—a little child—how to draw.
And so the stirrings of talent begin.
You become talented.
You draw more.
You use drawing as a weapon to get attention.
You spend more time, understanding the medium and patterns better.
You get more attention. You draw even more. And the attention feeds on itself, resulting in more effort, more training.
And voila, you’re an artist.
You see it’s stupidity that causes us to believe in talent.
Talent is nothing but a seed, well watered.
Which is why most of us have a ‘talent’ to speak almost one language.
Most of us have a ‘talent’ to press door bells, and speak on phones.
Most of us have a ‘talent’ to recite and write our alphabet from one end to the other.
Which brings us back to drawing
Surely drawing is a lot more complex than reciting and writing the alphabet.
You think so? Tell that to a three-year old child.
Watch as she struggles with just the letter A. Or B. Or the combination of A, B and C.
So what makes her talent grow?
It’s the banana peel of life.
Her parents know that that child will ‘slip and fall’ if she doesn’t learn her alphabet.
So they make the alphabet fun. They show the child a cat. And say the letter C.
They show the child a ball, and you guessed it, it’s the letter B.
And soon, every child becomes a genius at the alphabet.
And you know what, if you are a genius at the alphabet, I can indeed teach you how to draw using NOTHING but the alphabet.
And could you then become a genius at drawing?
Hmmm…food for thought, eh?
So what are your questions? Because as you can tell, this is indeed going to be a long, long series.
Sean,
What is your working definition of talent? Creativity?
D.
Definition: Talent is the combination of many emotions, memories, patterns and repetitions, implemented at high speed.
And let me explain, emotion, patterns and memories in my next post. Feel free to ask questions on this post.
Ok, I’ll buy that.
How about creativity?
Creativity is “talent” + “disconnected objects”.
Let me put up a post just for that question.
Sean,
You said “Talent is the combination of many emotions, memories, patterns and repetitions, implemented at high speed.”
OK, that part I agree with. But I do not believe talent can be created. I do believe talent can be embellished.
Some people have more of an aptitude for certain types of thinking, or looking at the world, or doing certain things than others (scientists, mathematicians, graphic design, writing poetry, music, etc. I will use physical abilities as an analogy…
Some people are born bigger than others. Some born thinner, some stronger, some fatter. Some people grow taller than others and have a natural ability to jump higher, or run faster. They have a talent for those things… Then it is up to them to fully develop their talent… their physical abilities. That’s how Michael Jordan became Michael Jordan. He had an interest, he had an innate ability. And because of his interest, he practiced and practiced, and developed his natural ability and became one of the best if not the best ever basketball player.
Or take Einstein. A genius. He had a natural ability to think in a certain way. Sure he was expelled from a school, and told he was dumb and should get a manual labor job because that is all he was good for. But he had an interest. He was naturally thinking at an extremely high level. He had a natural talent for that type of thought. I believe, I don’t know him, never met him, so I can’t say for 100%.
I think a child develops an interest in something drawing, music, a sport, dance, playing with numbers… whatever. It is something they are naturally drawn to. It becomes fun for them, and they develop their abilities further… but it all starts with them having a natural interest and being magnetically pulled to that.
If you don’t believe that talent can be created, I can’t help you.
It’s that simple.
Your belief overpowers everything.
If you believe that the ‘computer’ is an agent of Satan, you’ll believe that it’s an agent of Satan. If you believe that a computer is an agent of God, then that’s your belief again.
But any dopey kid will tell you that a computer is a box of hardware and software. And connections that create the Internet.
For you to listen to what I have to say, you’re going to have to suspend your belief. Be sure to ask questions; be sure to disagree. But also be sure to drop down the wall of disbelief—if only to listen to what the ‘dopey kid’ (that’s me) is telling you.
Physical abilities and biology are not part of what your brain does. This is the common mistake people make when they refer to talent. Talent is your brain at work, not the size of your body.
The body does come into play in certain activities like sport, but in most cases, from music, to mathematics, to art, to writing, you can be a wimpy 60-pound weakling, and still be utterly brilliant.
Talent is a combination of many factors. The brilliance comes from continuous repetition, disconnections etc. But mixing up facts doesn’t help you or I become more um, talented. 🙂
Because of what we’ve been taught, we mix up lots of facts. I intend to separate the ‘random stuff’ from the stuff that matters. So stay with me. And let’s do some separation to begin with.
Let’s read your paragraph below. And then analyse it.
Here’s your answer:
https://brainaudit.com/?p=23
But I’ve posted here anyway.
Einstein wasn’t talented. He developed a pattern recognition. He worked out a pattern that somehow then falls into place. And then everything seems easy. Every ‘talented’ person has had this ‘aha-moment’ several times in their life. They are doing something, then it hits them. And they hit their forehead.
That hitting of forehead is a moment when the brain recognises a pattern that others have failed to see. Any ‘talented’ person will tell you that the pattern has existed forever. And that they’ve just failed to see it. Of course, so have the others around them.
Because the ‘talented’ person is the first to see the pattern in this specific way, they are called ‘talented.’ But truly talented people know and recognise the forehead moment. They know it’s the moment that they finally recognise a new direction. Or to put it another way, another pattern.
You can do this while driving a car. I can, for instance, get you to the city from my house about 40 cars ahead of anyone who sets out at the same time, from the same destination. It doesn’t mean that I’m talented at jumping lanes. It means that I’ve recognised a pattern.
It’s what we call the forehead moment. That duh sound you hear, is the new direction unfolding.
Again, complexity in the statement above. To pull apart:
1) Children are interested.
2) Others can put that interest in children.
No one is naturally drawn to anything. Humans find things easy or hard. Do things because they get a pat or the back or not. And do things because they are taught in the right way, or not.
These are three massive topics:
1) Why we are ‘drawn to some things’ and not to others.
2) The role of recognition in ‘talent.’
3) The role of teaching methodology.
Naturally, humans have no real talent. The only talent we really have is to cry, and kick up a fuss so that we get fed. But more about the three concepts later.