[dgreensp]

> It is all very stirring, of course; but I confess that if I were playing cards I would rather have some decent little book which told me the rules of the game. Beyond the rules of the game it is all a question either of talent or dishonesty; and I will undertake to provide either one or the other—which, it is not for me to say.

This false dichotomy between "talent and dishonesty" is an example of what rubs me the wrong way, and it's no small thing. It still shows up today when people get frustrated that the "best" things or people don't always succeed. If you have a band, for example, is thinking about how to promote yourselves on the side of greed rather than just being talented? What about an engineer who could use some networking advice to find a better job? The athlete who lacks discipline, or who needs to connect more fully with his dreams and motivations to burst forth and excel?

You could say these are still specific skills, just enlarged ones, but I believe there is such a thing as skill at every level of generality.

The 20th century saw new awareness of the imperfect correspondence between quality and success, for example in the form of marketing -- think cigarettes, or Bush Jr. There's also some new understanding of talent vs. success. It used to be you just called a talented but unsuccessful person "lazy." Or, I suppose, insufficiently greedy.