Originally Posted by ColinsMum
All this stuff about whether having a good memory is correlated with high IQ is beside your original point, though. You don't need to do an experiment as complicated as this to confirm or refute your claim, which was: "there's a point [and earlier you put this point at 14 digits of backwards recall] beyond which practice won't help in the face of insufficient talent."

I've put in the 14 digits you mentioned earlier, because without some specified point, there is a danger that your claim becomes uninterestingly true....

The 14 digits thing was a bad example, so I definitely stand corrected there. The triple axel was a better example.

My original point was that in US society, there is a myth positing that you can do anything and be a success if you just practice enough. I don't think that success is that simple, and feel that this philosophy is an extreme one that sets people up for failure while not giving them the tools they need to understand why they failed. Pushing too many people to go to college is an example of that.

"You can..." is not the same as "You might; see what happens."

Val