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    JonLaw Offline OP
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    And reality, once again, intrudes into the popular imagination.

    "There is now compelling evidence that genes matter for success, too. In a study led by the King’s College London psychologist Robert Plomin, more than 15,000 twins in the United Kingdom were identified through birth records and recruited to perform a battery of tests and questionnaires, including a test of drawing ability in which the children were asked to sketch a person. In a recently published analysis of the data, researchers found that there was a stronger correspondence in drawing ability for the identical twins than for the fraternal twins. In other words, if one identical twin was good at drawing, it was quite likely that his or her identical sibling was, too. Because identical twins share 100 percent of their genes, whereas fraternal twins share only 50 percent on average, this finding indicates that differences across people in basic artistic ability are in part due to genes. In a separate study based on this U.K. sample, well over half of the variation between expert and less skilled readers was found to be due to genes."

    http://www.slate.com/articles/healt..._deliberate_practice_is_wrong_genes.html

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    Clearly my lack of artistic talent relates to the fact that I have no identical twin.

    smirk


    Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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    I think the last couple of sentences in the article are critical. We're not all blessed with equal abilities. We're not all destined for art school or to be the next Picasso just as we're not all going to be the next Bach or Tiger Woods. And for many of us, practice doesn't do squat in some realms. Well, genes can account for high, average, or low muscle tone, but that's not mentioned here, of course.

    Artistic ability is also quite a bit different than physical, music, or math abilities. Art often involves much more spatial ability than other fields and sometimes more the intersection of the arts and sciences than someone who is physically gifted. Artists need some technical skills in creating, but they don't necessarily have to be an Edison or engineer type.

    No mention either on how arty types tend to marry those who at least appreciate beauty or have some other attributes that arty types value.

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    Regarding art, creativity and an engineering/mechanical bent I really admire industrial designers. My office is few blocks from the MOMA in Manhattan. I can walk around just the gift shops for hours admiring that clever combination of form/aesthetic statement and function.

    Having said that I think that an elegant proof, algorithm or just a very well designed kitchen tool is purest joy to behold too LOL


    Become what you are
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    Originally Posted by cdfox
    No mention either on how arty types tend to marry those who at least appreciate beauty or have some other attributes that arty types value.

    Like income?

    When I was in school, college track didn't have room for art. Art is a very unbalanced pyramid of pay, and many people talk about it as an indulgent field. Success often requires skills that aren't inherently tied together. So, a person with a great mind for producing art, will need the high levels of practice in the execution of their medium if they aren't doubly gifted. I think requisite but dissimilar ability pairings likely underlies much of the practice component in variations of these studies.

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    While practice may not make perfect, significant practice may open doors which otherwise might not have opened. Much of what Gladwell wrote was about the creation of opportunity.

    Those interested in a quick synopsis of Outliers may wish to read the author interview at the back of the book and also the final chapter. One sees:
    - parents who ensured their Jamaican daughters studied well,
    - parental awareness of a new all-island merit scholarship,
    - daughters earning meritorious opportunity to study in London,
    - one daughter's marriage and settling in Canada,
    - that grown daughter and her husband raising three sons, including Malcolm.

    The principle of sacrifice/practice is sound and builds character. Which is not to say all of his ideas pass muster:
    - Chronological age is used as a proxy for "maturity": Then a recommendation is made that children might be grouped in schools by narrower age bands.
    - There may even be some cherry-picked data illustrating a concept or two in his book (such as birth month advantage in sports, using a limited sample of data).

    Still Gladwell gives us "big ideas" to consider.

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    Hmm.... art or what someone appreciates as art or beauty is in the eye of the beholder and yet it is a core aspect of being human with deep evolutionary origins ( see Denis Dutton's Ted talk - http://www.ted.com/talks/denis_dutton_a_darwinian_theory_of_beauty?language=en). Some of us math averse people fail to grasp the beauty in mathematical equations and I'll include Einstein's here too - though I'll risk being hung, drawn, and quartered.

    Steve Jobs took a class in calligraphy at Reed College before dropping out and then heading to India but always considered himself to be an artist - though he technically wasn't one. Unlike Jim Henson, he couldn't do sketches of his designs or cobble together mediums to create his Apple creations - like Henson could with his Muppets. Jobs, however, could communicate his ideas and thoughts (often quite bluntly) on industrial design to his teams at Apple on what the iPod, iPhone, or iPad should look like and how they should work. But it was a largely a trial and error process and the focus was always on the end product, not the money.

    madeinuk - if you read Walter Isaacson's biography, you'll see how Steve Jobs really relished industrial design and would keep looking at Braun and Cuisinart appliances as guides.

    Also John Lennon, Clapton, Keith Richards, members of Pink Floyd and Zeppelin, many other UK rock and rollers from the 60s went to art school before they became famous musicians and it's not a coincidence either. (http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/apr/19/art-schools). It was more about experimentation and expression than about practice.

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    In all seriousness, let me just say here that the design aesthetic of traditional Scandinavian, Japanese, and more recently German home/industrial design, folk art, and craftsmanship is stunning to me. I truly just stand in awe of it. It's beautiful, understated, functional, appealing, yet still somehow organic and elegant in every way. It permeates everything from interior design (ooooo... those Stockholm chairs from IKEA) to traditional Japanese knitted lace patterns, to an Audi interior or fine German surgical instruments. Like Haiku in three-dimensional form; it is precisely what it NEEDS to be, but also precisely (and no more) what it wants to be, as well. In the eye of the beholder, I suppose, but this is my take on it.

    That is as awe-inspiring to me in its own way as the perfection of a Caravaggio or the Allegri Miserere.



    Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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    I always find the 10,000 hours theory developed by the likes of Ericsson fraught with endogeneity. It's entirely possible that those who practice their craft most are those for whom the barriers to entry are lowest--they find it easier, more pleasurable, etc. than others. Constellations of ability are heterogeneous, and selection bias might be what is being observed.

    Specifically in these tests of musical ability in twins, the authors forget the fact that simply hearing music has a training effect on the brain.



    What is to give light must endure burning.
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    Completely agree with the article. Gladwell's views have been used to justify the elimination of ability grouping in many schools ("why use IQ when it's just hard work that is necessary"), and have created undue distress for those who lack natural talent and keep pressuring themselves to achieve.

    That being said, many gifted underachievers could benefit from more practice and focus. Schools allow them to slide through easily, and they are rarely challenged or pushed to achieve their potential.

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