If Mozart were alive today he would be a techno trance producer.

Explaining Child Prodigies - The Secret Behind Mozart's Genius (animated)

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

 

I'm gonna post a new poll:

Do you consider yourself a narcissist?

 

TOP 20 Auditions on Britain's Got Talent 2025!

 

Last edited: May 17, 2025 at 5:56 PM

Perhaps you are misinterpreting the definition? A narcissistic personality is a person who has a superiority complex and looks down at others they feel are not on their own level, and addition they will only associate with those that they feel that do. They have delusions of grandeur and a lack of empathy for others...among other abhorrent traits.

I've seen none of those behaviors in any of the posts in this thread or in any member that I've read on this forum.

 

No offense, but that's more or less literally the opposite of talent. Competence is not talent.

 

I consider myself an egoist, but not a narcissist.

 

Talent paired with intelligence, hard work and love for the cause lead to success.

 

What most people think of as talent is literally just that... applied memorization, pattern recognition and logic. Some people have a higher inclination or propensity for certain things, but in the end, talent is really an umbrella term for things like skill, ability, competence, expertise, etc.

I don't believe talent as some sort of natural gift. Maybe there are some exceptions, but I think generally most people's inherent potential or strengths are cultivated based on their interests, and "talent" is developed through practice, dedication, and experience.

 

It's more curiosity than innate ability

 

This is a large part of the problem with the world today... words literally mean things (even the word literally).

Talent

noun
1. A marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment. "He has a rare talent for music."
2.Natural endowment or ability of a superior quality. "The play has a cast of immense talent."
3. A person or group of people having such ability. "The company makes good use of its talent."

The word doesn't just mean what someone feels that it means. Not trying to be confrontational, this sort of thing just drives me nuts.

 

@aymat thats literally what the word means though and why it was created, to define someone whose naturally good at something, same with the word aptitude - what youre describing is learned ability

a lot of talented people are naturally good at things they couldnt care less about. like one of my cousins and running, hes always been really fast growing up, he didnt practice that, nobody taught him to run fast; its just a natural ability. my uncle and others were always trying to get him into sports because of that, he didnt like sports though and had no interest in it, despite his natural ability and people would tell him he was wasting his potential

or me and singing, even my speaking voice people have told me they liked it. others kept noticing i could sing really well, it wasnt from me practicing. just singing stuff randomly like anyone else and people telling me i was good or being surprised by my voice when they heard it. after people kept saying it to me, i thought about pursuing it, i had no interest before that. while my sister, she can also sing really well without any training but has no interest in pursuing it - shes still talented though if that makes sense


edit: lol smeghead beat me too it

 

I'm a talented drawing artist. I know what talent feels like. It's like seeing the code in the Matrix. You don't search for things to draw. It's like things tell you how they want to be depicted. Of course, I've been drawing by hand before I could read or write, and I've put a lot of hours into it during my whole life. I've stopped drawing for a while now, and although the skill itself isn't gone, now it feels like I'm kind of rusty and drawing takes longer now. This goes to show for me that talent alone is futile. It is the work that matters. Back to music, I've never felt like that about music. Never ever. All I can do in music has been love of the craft and hard work. The funny thing is that the artists I work with constantly tell me that I'm a talented bass player. Nothing is further from the truth. What people see as talent is in fact, lots of man hours doing what I love.

 

I feel like an imposter most of the time but every once in awhile I squeeze out something good lol

 

My theory is this: music is information, and information wants to be free and out into the world. So, the information seeks someone who will take it up and make it accessible to other people. You can think about a saying like this: Music comes from nowhere! I've thought about this sentence for a long time; it keeps coming back to me. But it can't be explained rationally.

I think writing a great song is something that happens in the soul or in a non-material, visible space. The human creative spirit is infinite, but life is finite. The fact that many people have become increasingly distant from nature/God also severs their connection to something else, greater—I'll call it the soul.

 

What if some people really aren't on the same level, yet they think they are? Should you play along and not hurt their feelings, or just tell them the truth?

 

Last edited: May 17, 2025 at 11:29 PM

I'd say if it doesn't affect you directly I wouldn't worry about it but if it does then I would find a diplomatic way of putting it to them...

 

Yes very talented. And i wish i wasn't born with this gift, just so these butterflies in my stomach stop nagging me about not giving up or ending my life.

 

Don't think too much anymore. By my standards, no one in the current music world is talented.

 

I understand what you're saying. Some people refer to talent as natural ability, and this is also why I stated that maybe in this context there are some exceptions.

You say your cousin is naturally fast and there a lot of people who are also naturally fast purely out of circumstance. I don't consider just genetic disposition as talent though. Ethiopian distance runners are known for their incredible speed but that is due to a combination of factors, like high-altitude training, favorable biomechanical and physiological attributes and a strong psychological drive.

This is where I think people get hung up on the idea of talent. If you're just using circumstance as the gauge for talent then we're dismissing a large portion of the population that doesn't fall under the definition of "talent". There are talented race car drivers that weren't born knowing how to drive. There are talented fighters who weren't born knowing how to fight... the list goes on and on. Thats why I feel that talent has less to do with circumstantial factors and more to do with cultivating skill. The definition of talent to me is dismissive of so many other factors and that's why I don't agree that talent is simply some special endowment. Talent is a culmination of so many other things.

How do you know you're a talented artist if you've never picked up a pencil or learned how to draw? You might be inclined or drawn to art but that alone isn't going to make you talented. You have to understand and apply what you learn continuously over time in order to cultivate the skills that make that talent happen.

Here's an example, this is my website:

https://artisticanatomy.org/

I've been a professional illustrator for 30+ years. Ive had an interest in art since I was a kid but I wasn't naturally gifted. I was simply obsessed with learning how to draw, and over time I improved enough to be hired as an artist for a publisher right out of high school. And I simply just kept doing it and improving. To some people they might see me as a talented artist. I don't see myself that way but rather an efficient problem solver, because to me the things that I'm drawn to and enjoy doing are exactly that, problem solving. I think the majority of people fall under this type of "talent".

The exceptions to this, at least from what I've seen personally, would be someone who is considered to be a savant. That to me more accurately falls under the definition of talent. If you look at someone like Stephen Wiltshire, you could easily make the argument:

And then you have some one like Jason Padgett who is considered a Math genius but only after sustaining a brain injury:

I know its a long post but hopefully this explains how I see it in more concise manner.