[rland]

I'm not sure.

I know a lot of seemingly "talented" people. How do they pick up a new instrument in 2-3 months? Or be able to balance on a skateboard after just a little while? Or get kills better than me with only 200 CS GO hours clocked?

The answer is always that they spent a lot of focused time earlier in life, or that they spend a lot of time that I wasn't aware of -- like I find out that they have 2500 hours in CS:S on another account... yeah that makes a lot more sense.

I don't believe innate talent exists. Other than that some people are mentally quicker, or have faster reflexes, or are physically more capable -- "general" things. But talent exists only from both hard work and time, which for many things can start at age 2 or 3.

[ImprobableTruth]

>I don't believe innate talent exists. Other than that some people are mentally quicker, or have faster reflexes, or are physically more capable -- "general" things

I don't understand how this distinction is supposed to work. If someone has exactly the 'general natural inclinations' that fit to a certain activity, it seems asinine to not call them talented in it. Sure, they won't be skilled in it unless they actually put in the work, but they'll comparatively have an easier time with it.

[ehnto]

They might be thinking of the tendency for people to assume talent in a particular task is something you are born with, not the general aptitudes for that task.

Like when one person says "A natural born musician" they are usually not just suggesting the person has general traits good for music. They often just believe the person was born with musical talent pre-programmed somehow.

[borroka]

"I don't believe innate talent exists" - This, in light of 100 years of (mathematized quantitative genetics) and thousands of years of empirical observation, is a profoundly wrong observation. There is variation in, broadly speaking, traits and (almost) all physiological and behavioral traits are heritable. Do you believe that taller parents tend to have taller offspring? I guess the answer is yes; then, it is not any different for other traits that are less-observable, for example control of motor functions.

There is a time, early in life, during which traits are more plastic, for a variety of reasons (for height, nutritional interventions are more likely to be successful early in life than during the teenage years), but you won't make a genetically slow phenotype into a top 1% 100-m specialist.