#3

DO YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF TALENT?

I’ve classified “talent” into four categories. These are differences in type more than degree of talent, as all types are equally capable of acquiring high levels of skill and making new contributions to fields:

Talent with formal education– a talent that manifests with exposure to formal education. A student excelling well beyond his peers in a specific field may easily have this type of talent.

Talent with self-education–talent that manifests with education, say, by voracious reading. When a scientist picks up the works of a previous scientist on his own and goes on to perform great things in the same field, it is this form of talent that is being expressed.

Talent without education – talent that is present within an individual before any significant instruction is given. This form of talent often manifests as intuitive insight into the workings of a field, and may be difficult to express. Education may not necessarily be harmful, but it isn’t really necessary.

Talent, formal education contraindicated – people with this form of talent excel because they think of concepts in unusual ways. The thoughts of people with this talent are unconventional enough that attempting to reconcile them with conventional practice in a field through formal education may very well result in the loss of this talent altogether.

These are not necessarily distinct categories, and it is possible to be talented in one subject in one way and talented in a different subject in another way (of course). For example, my eldest sister may be talented with both formal and self-education in producing widgets, while my brother might be talented with education in producing widgets but talented without education in music.

Talents that require education tend to result in more thorough and complete work, but do generally take more time and effort to develop than those that do not. The person who creates (i.e., choreographs) a dance is known as the choreographer.