On Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:41:44 -0800, Jim Clark wrote in response to Joan Warmbold's recommendation of the "Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle: >Hi >One of the "hot spots" mentioned is Brazil and soccer players. Here's a >passage from a site celebrating Brazilian soccer. > >"The majority of the people living in Brazil are in deep poverty. Soccer is >the >one ticket out of that lifestyle if the talent is learned early enough. Many >of >the popular soccer players on the Brazil soccer team came from very poor >backgrounds, learning soccer at a very young age." > >The emerging superstars, relatively numerous at the star level, would be a >very tiny proportion of all the poor kids playing soccer in Brazil. I would >be >very surprised if genes did not play some part in the radical sorting process >that led some few to stardom and the rest to whatever miserable fate awaits >them once their dreams of glory are shattered by reality.
Jim's comments triggered my memory for why the Dominican Republic (cited on the website as an example of a source of "talent") produces such extraordinary baseball players. It's not a pretty picture, similar to what Jim describes for the pool in Brazil, but is given in more detail in the following article: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1028-25.htm I am frequently confused when a person uses the word "talent" because it is not clear what they mean by it. Often it is a fundamental attribution error, that is, it seems to be more valid to explain a person's behavior by focusing on dispositional variables (e.g., "native intelligence","native skill", "heart", desire or motivation or other personality or person-based variables instead of (a) the environment in which the behavior is observed or an individual-environment interaction and/or (b) a history of training and development under a number of wise and intelligent mentors). Like the Just World Hypothesis, many people like to think that a person's achievements reflect solely on their efforts and "talents" while in truth the achievement probably could not have been made without the assistance/input of a large number of people (just watch the ending credits of a movie to get a sense of how many people need to be involved in that enterprise). -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7688 or send a blank email to leave-7688-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
