Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters

Interesting article about a talk Malcolm Gladwell gave for the Association for Psychological Science.

Really what we mean … when we say that someone is ‘naturally gifted’ is that they practice a lot, that they want to practice a lot, that they like to practice a lot.

1 comment:

Naomi said...

I would argue that a prodigy usually starts from a higher than average degree of compentence. Kids tend to enjoy working at something only after they've established a modicum of success. I believe in many cases, it starts with a positive payoff, and the desire to keep at it comes from continuing to enjoy rewards. Does anyone believe that when Mozart first attempted to make music that it wasn't much better than similar attempty by other children of the same age *and older*?