Never understood how some people boil down everything to raw talent that you're born with...

I mean, sure, people have different cognitive abilities, different strengths and weaknesses, etc (like a DnD Campaign, lol)

and I can understand how people can conclude that someone is a very "talented" musician or artist because humans have been around for a long time and us humans have been into music and art for a long time...

but here's the kicker, computers have been around for less than a 100 years or so,
so how the heck can someone be a "talented" computer programmer?

no, they are SKILLED because they worked their @ss off to get good.

No one fell out of their mum being able to do that.

sure, there might be some young kids who seem to have talent for music or art, but you look at their environment, they are usually surrounded by people with the same set of skills, so they're just learning from their surrounding environment, lol

sorry for the rant, I'm kinda passionate about this topic because it's kinda sad to see people give up or not even try because they think they don't have "talent"

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

The skilled programmer - or anyone else with a modern skill - must have the basic talent to learn the sort of skills necessary. That the knowledge did not exist in the past does not matter because each new individual sees it anew anyway.

As you say, no-one is borne with specific talents. Rather, I think, we all have innate abilities for certain types of learning. The programmer might equally well have become a mathematician, for example.

Environment must play a part as you say, but I am not sure if it necessary that those around you are in the same fields. Perhaps an environment that fosters and encourages learning and skill, irrespective of what those are, is more important than one full of specialists in just one discipline.

I may be wrong, as I am not a neuro-scientist, but I also believe we all have natural limits to what we can learn, and to what level.

You might write very simple computer programmes in C++ or BASIC, but never be able to develop Internet-server level skill.

You might passably pick out the slow "Moonlight" melody from Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (not actually his title for it) but could never progress to being an international concert pianist.

You might get by in fractured school-level French while on holiday in France, but never be able to learn languages to international journalism, science or diplomacy level.

Some might learn Mathematcis to stratospheric heights if complexity but be hopeless at singing, say; yet the operatic star be nearly innumerate. While others can barely learn what (a+b)(a+b) equal and be so bad at singing they might make the charts.

Once reaching that level it is impossible to proceed further, but , I think, what categories of ability we have, and their heights, are individual to the person.

You have a point about giving up, but if you are in that position, it becomes fruitless striving to learn something your brain cannot process. Some people are lazy, yes, but not everyone; and there comes a point where further struggle is not worth it.

Fishy · 36-40, F

@ArishMell Yeah, I'm not really saying everyone will be the next Beethoven if they practice hard enough,

but it's just sad seeing people who really want to do something but they give up,

but a little bit of encouragement goes a long way, I've seen people get motivated to a point where they might have well been on fire when they're shown how to do something they didn't think possible

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Fishy I think how anyone is taught can be a major point.

Mathematics was always my weakest subject because I have no innate talent for it; but worsened by two particular teachers at school. It was anyway taught as an abstraction with a school-leaving examination in mind. Not something with many everyday real-world uses despite a few, rather contrived examples in the text-books.

However, I managed to understand some of the topics the Maths syllabus covered, eventually by encountering them in real life and seeing them in different ways.

On the other hand I could never play a musical instrument, or sing, because I am tone-deaf.