Psychologist Says II

[Samiel]

Let me get this right. According to you folks the only difference between any one of you and your pool playing skills and Efren's skills is the amount of practice time, the age at which you began playing, and your dedication. Whatever that means.
Patently absurd!

So you're saying that if Efren had never played One Pocket before, he'd still have won all of those DCC One Pocket titles? Now that's absurd!

Efren had to practice One Pocket to become good at it! Most people agree that natural talent definitely helped him become great at it, but he still had to put in practice time.

I do believe that someone who has never played pool before and has no natural talent for it could practice it enough and become as good as Efren or better. The only problem is that people will later say he had natural talent for it.

For all we know, Efren had no natural talent for pool and just became great at it through a lot of practice!

 

[Tramp Steamer]

Then I am to assume that we humans, at birth, may be compared to a clean slate. That none of us have any propensities for anything. That you, me, or any of the rest of us could equal Einstien say, if we but started young and worked hard. Well I say we can't because nature doesn't allow it.

 

[JoeyA]

I think every person's life is filled with people who had natural ability or keen intellect to whom many of the things of life came easily to them, yet over the long run, they were easily outperformed by their peers with less natural talent and even lower IQ's but with better work ethics.

Those with superior natural ability or higher IQ scores are often stunted in their development or they are satisfied with the mediocrity of their lives and are destined to live out their lives full of their own whimsy believing that they are superior to others, always looking to knock someone off of their own ladder just to make themselves feel good. It's not necessarily the benchmark but it happens often enough that you know that there is far more to achievement than a superior set of brain cells or a naturally talented eye-hand coordination.

If your life hasn't been filled with these people, you either haven't lived long enough to observe it or you're one of them. On one side you just have to give it a little time and on the other, you just have to look in the mirror and face the cold reality of truth.

Achievement is affected more so by desire than by natural genetics.
JoeyA

 

[rayjay]

It seems a common occurance in sports to have "wasted talent."

Alan Iverson is a good example. He was a great basketball player that could have been truly amazing if he had applied and challenged himself.

To me, Alan Iverson is amazing. Amazing...

Nature? Nurture? I say both.