[Music]
you
[Music]
take a moment and think about one skill
you consider an innate talent you got it
good
we’ll come back to it I grew up in a
household that told me that I had some
natural god-given talents and I had to
find them and use them I inferred from
that mindset that I that there are some
talents that I did not have and that was
just too bad for me
that you either have it or you didn’t
and that’s the way it goes now please
don’t think I came from a terrible
household my parents are lovely in
supportive people but that was just an
underlying truth for us growing up I
noticed the talents of the people around
me I saw that some kids were artistic my
third-grade buddy Ryan our ashika could
draw whatever she saw with frightening
accuracy and realism cats buildings
people you name it she could draw it she
would sketch everything she saw around
her when I tried to do the same mine
didn’t come out very realistic
so I chalked it up to Ryan has artistic
talent and I do not no big deal I won’t
be the next Edward Hopper I’ll leave
that to folks like Ryan I think most of
us remember someone like Ryan or others
who are gifted in terms of music
learning instruments or languages sports
etc but what if we have the ability to
learn any talent think back to that
innate talent I asked you about just a
moment ago why can’t that be a learnable
skill your arms are too short your
fingers are too stiff your brain too
slow I’m not saying it’s going to be
quick and easy to learn how to run fast
speak five languages or shoot hoops but
I believe that all skills that we
consider talent are actually learning it
will take a lot of time and energy but
it is possible now I bet some of you
right now are thinking nope you cannot
learn creativity or body flexibility etc
I understand your reluctance a group of
wickedly bright teachers here at ACS
discussed this last week when I
presented this talk for them
we weighed in on how an environment
foster and support creative endeavors
how experts can guide us and train us to
obtain seemingly unobtainable goals and
how concerns for our own safety and
well-being might get in the way of some
of our learning I invite you to discuss
with your teachers any reluctance you
have towards learning a new talent
here’s why when I figured out that I
could learn anything if I was willing to
put the time energy and effort in it
radically changed the world I the way I
approach the world as I started to work
on this talk I found examples that
expire that inspired me and seemed to
disprove this outlook that I’d been
brought up with my grandmother dot did
not exhibit any extraordinary artistic
talent she did quilt and sew and cooked
and raised children but worked mostly on
functional 3d crafts like blankets or
clothing but at the age of 86 with the
help of another little old lady friend
she decided to learn to watercolor twice
a week for an entire summer ladies would
get together and practice painting under
the guidance of the experienced little
old lady artist grandma is now 96 and
has a pile of watercolor paintings that
she’s created whenever I visit she pulls
out the stack and shows me what she’s
been working on she’s quick to point out
the one she found challenging the
subjects that she feels she has a
mastery of and so on she does put a
variety of motifs
I’m just really partial to her flowers
so how could this 86 year old woman
learn to be artistic time effort
patience perseverance determination and
grip what admirable qualities to
demonstrate in pursuit of a new and
elusive innate talent double bonus I met
some of you are think oh just kidding
as I was discussing learn about talent
and the lessons and perseverance that
usually accompany these trying journeys
Chris Ward the band director showed me
this recording from Ira Glass the radio
personality responsible for one of my
favorite radio shows NPR’s This American
Life it’s short and I hope you’ll enjoy
it
nobody tells people who are beginners
and I really wish somebody had told this
to me is that um all of us who do
creative work like you know we get into
it and we get into it because we have
good taste but it’s like there’s a gap
that for the first couple years that
you’re making stuff what you’re making
isn’t so good okay it’s not that great
it’s it’s trying to be good it has
ambition to good but it’s not quite that
good but your taste the thing that got
you into the game you look your taste is
still killer and your taste is good
enough that you can tell that what
you’re making is kind of a
disappointment to you you know what I
mean a lot of people never get past that
face a lot of people at that point they
quit and the thing I would just like say
to you with all my heart is that most
everybody I know who does interesting
creative work then went through a phase
of years where they had really good
taste they could tell what they were
making wasn’t as good as they wanted it
to be they knew it felt short it didn’t
have this special thing that we wanted
it to have and the thing I would say to
you is everybody goes through that and
for you to go through it if you’re going
through right now if you’re just getting
out of that phase you got to know it’s
totally normal and the most important
possible thing you could do is do a lot
of work do a huge volume of work put
yourself on a deadline so that every
week or every month you know you’re
going to finish one story because it’s
only by actually going through a volume
of work that you’re actually going to
catch up and close that gap and you’re
the work you’re making will be as good
as your ambitions in my case like I took
longer to figure out how to do this than
anybody I’ve ever met it takes a while
it’s going to take you a while it’s
normal to take a while and you just have
to fight your way through that okay
you
so you just have to fight your way
through that
learning new things does take time and I
like how he points out that we have high
expectations and good taste and that
could sink our creative endeavors but
we’ve all got to start somewhere
I think handstands are cool but they
were one of those things that I needed
more balance and strength to do sorry
balance isn’t one of my innate talents
well mr. Meissner his wife and i have
been attending adult beginner gymnastics
since January it’s been humbling and
exciting and frustrating here’s a chance
for us to learn something I didn’t think
was learn about I’m happy to report that
my handstands and mr. Meissner flips are
coming along nicely we’re planning to
showcase these new talents on the grass
field very soon in the words of Ralph
Waldo Emerson every artist was first an
amateur if you’re thinking you just
don’t have time to commit to learning a
new talent
science is on our side a study published
in 2011 and the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences showed that
as little as two hours of childlike
learning may be enough to stimulate
growth of gray matter and the brains of
mature adults researchers at the
University in Hong Kong say the findings
suggest that the adults brains ability
to change or its plasticity as it’s
known in medical terms occurs much
faster than previously thought
prior studies have shown increases in
gray matter in adults after weeks or
months of training but in this study
researchers induce changes in less than
two hours of training and which adults
learned new nonsensical names for colors
so I’ll leave you with this today what
interests have you lost along the way
because you didn’t exhibit a talent for
it maybe it’s time to revisit it thank
you
[Applause]
you
[Music]
take a moment and think about one skill
you consider an innate talent you got it
good
we’ll come back to it I grew up in a
household that told me that I had some
natural god-given talents and I had to
find them and use them I inferred from
that mindset that I that there are some
talents that I did not have and that was
just too bad for me
that you either have it or you didn’t
and that’s the way it goes now please
don’t think I came from a terrible
household my parents are lovely in
supportive people but that was just an
underlying truth for us growing up I
noticed the talents of the people around
me I saw that some kids were artistic my
third-grade buddy Ryan our ashika could
draw whatever she saw with frightening
accuracy and realism cats buildings
people you name it she could draw it she
would sketch everything she saw around
her when I tried to do the same mine
didn’t come out very realistic
so I chalked it up to Ryan has artistic
talent and I do not no big deal I won’t
be the next Edward Hopper I’ll leave
that to folks like Ryan I think most of
us remember someone like Ryan or others
who are gifted in terms of music
learning instruments or languages sports
etc but what if we have the ability to
learn any talent think back to that
innate talent I asked you about just a
moment ago why can’t that be a learnable
skill your arms are too short your
fingers are too stiff your brain too
slow I’m not saying it’s going to be
quick and easy to learn how to run fast
speak five languages or shoot hoops but
I believe that all skills that we
consider talent are actually learning it
will take a lot of time and energy but
it is possible now I bet some of you
right now are thinking nope you cannot
learn creativity or body flexibility etc
I understand your reluctance a group of
wickedly bright teachers here at ACS
discussed this last week when I
presented this talk for them
we weighed in on how an environment
foster and support creative endeavors
how experts can guide us and train us to
obtain seemingly unobtainable goals and
how concerns for our own safety and
well-being might get in the way of some
of our learning I invite you to discuss
with your teachers any reluctance you
have towards learning a new talent
here’s why when I figured out that I
could learn anything if I was willing to
put the time energy and effort in it
radically changed the world I the way I
approach the world as I started to work
on this talk I found examples that
expire that inspired me and seemed to
disprove this outlook that I’d been
brought up with my grandmother dot did
not exhibit any extraordinary artistic
talent she did quilt and sew and cooked
and raised children but worked mostly on
functional 3d crafts like blankets or
clothing but at the age of 86 with the
help of another little old lady friend
she decided to learn to watercolor twice
a week for an entire summer ladies would
get together and practice painting under
the guidance of the experienced little
old lady artist grandma is now 96 and
has a pile of watercolor paintings that
she’s created whenever I visit she pulls
out the stack and shows me what she’s
been working on she’s quick to point out
the one she found challenging the
subjects that she feels she has a
mastery of and so on she does put a
variety of motifs
I’m just really partial to her flowers
so how could this 86 year old woman
learn to be artistic time effort
patience perseverance determination and
grip what admirable qualities to
demonstrate in pursuit of a new and
elusive innate talent double bonus I met
some of you are think oh just kidding
as I was discussing learn about talent
and the lessons and perseverance that
usually accompany these trying journeys
Chris Ward the band director showed me
this recording from Ira Glass the radio
personality responsible for one of my
favorite radio shows NPR’s This American
Life it’s short and I hope you’ll enjoy
it
nobody tells people who are beginners
and I really wish somebody had told this
to me is that um all of us who do
creative work like you know we get into
it and we get into it because we have
good taste but it’s like there’s a gap
that for the first couple years that
you’re making stuff what you’re making
isn’t so good okay it’s not that great
it’s it’s trying to be good it has
ambition to good but it’s not quite that
good but your taste the thing that got
you into the game you look your taste is
still killer and your taste is good
enough that you can tell that what
you’re making is kind of a
disappointment to you you know what I
mean a lot of people never get past that
face a lot of people at that point they
quit and the thing I would just like say
to you with all my heart is that most
everybody I know who does interesting
creative work then went through a phase
of years where they had really good
taste they could tell what they were
making wasn’t as good as they wanted it
to be they knew it felt short it didn’t
have this special thing that we wanted
it to have and the thing I would say to
you is everybody goes through that and
for you to go through it if you’re going
through right now if you’re just getting
out of that phase you got to know it’s
totally normal and the most important
possible thing you could do is do a lot
of work do a huge volume of work put
yourself on a deadline so that every
week or every month you know you’re
going to finish one story because it’s
only by actually going through a volume
of work that you’re actually going to
catch up and close that gap and you’re
the work you’re making will be as good
as your ambitions in my case like I took
longer to figure out how to do this than
anybody I’ve ever met it takes a while
it’s going to take you a while it’s
normal to take a while and you just have
to fight your way through that okay
you
so you just have to fight your way
through that
learning new things does take time and I
like how he points out that we have high
expectations and good taste and that
could sink our creative endeavors but
we’ve all got to start somewhere
I think handstands are cool but they
were one of those things that I needed
more balance and strength to do sorry
balance isn’t one of my innate talents
well mr. Meissner his wife and i have
been attending adult beginner gymnastics
since January it’s been humbling and
exciting and frustrating here’s a chance
for us to learn something I didn’t think
was learn about I’m happy to report that
my handstands and mr. Meissner flips are
coming along nicely we’re planning to
showcase these new talents on the grass
field very soon in the words of Ralph
Waldo Emerson every artist was first an
amateur if you’re thinking you just
don’t have time to commit to learning a
new talent
science is on our side a study published
in 2011 and the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences showed that
as little as two hours of childlike
learning may be enough to stimulate
growth of gray matter and the brains of
mature adults researchers at the
University in Hong Kong say the findings
suggest that the adults brains ability
to change or its plasticity as it’s
known in medical terms occurs much
faster than previously thought
prior studies have shown increases in
gray matter in adults after weeks or
months of training but in this study
researchers induce changes in less than
two hours of training and which adults
learned new nonsensical names for colors
so I’ll leave you with this today what
interests have you lost along the way
because you didn’t exhibit a talent for
it maybe it’s time to revisit it thank
you
[Applause]
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