‘Bounce’ by Matthew Syed presents ponder worthy ideas that question whether innate talent actually exists. Syed contends that there is no such thing as talent – practiced skill masquerades as talent instead. He even has explanations for prodigies who appear to be complete savants. Success in complex tasks is apparently tantamount to the amount of time put into to practice, 10,000 hours, or ten years, being the magic number to achieve expertise.
But it’s not just 10,000 idle hours of repetition and benign experience. The time spent must be engaging, challenging and designed to produce progress. Let’s say you wanted to be the world’s fastest reader. Reading as fast as you can for 10,000 hours won’t cut it. Instead you would need to design drills and exercises, perhaps even employ a coach in order to reach the threshold of expertise and gain an actual ‘talent’ for it. In Syed’s view, talent is earned as opposed to being a natural gift. More of a gift you give to yourself. And there are no shortcuts.
Self doubt paralyses the process toward success. If you don’t believe, even to the point of occasional irrationality, that you can do it you are far less likely to succeed. In the book this is referred to as the placebo effect. One must visualize themselves at the pinnacle of the goal and know that they will get there in order to arrive. When seeming failure arises, ‘Bounce’ prescribes a new perception – looking at the failure as a point of learning and as evidence of attempted progress.
As much as I enjoyed the read, I still question the notion of talent as a myth. Syed debunks many ideas that support this, including the popular theory about black people being more proficient runners than people of other races. In the face of all the evidence in the book, I think I may be hard wired to accept the talent myth, as Syed says many of us are. I like to think that I have a few small talents, although mostly undeveloped, that come easily to me. However, when I look at this carefully I see that some of my perceived mini talents are the result of my choice to frequently visit these areas of my life. I have no talent for mathematics because I haven’t practiced. I have some talent for interior decorating because I have spent time honing it.
If Syed’s compelling theories are true, I have an even longer way to go than I thought. Sigh…
