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Thu 3 Nov, 2005 02:07 pm
My best effort to sum up my thoughts on this subject would be to say the way in which we educate our youth - and our young adults - has severe problems that would require major overhauls in everything from the subjects covered to the teachers themselves. "Finding yourself" can only come from experience: unlocking doors within the mind and seeing if they're fun to play inside of. If the way in which information is presented is flawed, finding yourself becomes much more difficult, and moreover nearly impossible for millions, while the lucky few have merely stumbled upon a diamond in the rough by coincidence.
Nietzsche
I am trying to understand what talent means. I am using talent as defined in the dictionary as 'a natural endowment'. My question is does apptitude mean the same as talent. Does talent have elements that must go together? What are the categories of talent?
coberst wrote:My question is does apptitude mean the same as talent.
Talent, skill, aptitude: I'd say these all have much the same conceptual properties, yes.
Quote:Does talent have elements that must go together?
Well, talent certainly isn't static or rigid, if that's what you mean.
Quote:What are the categories of talent?
Need more info.
Chuck wrote-
Quote:I am of the opinion that we all have a number of personal resonances (talents?) that if discovered give great emphasis to our life's satisfaction. Those individuals who discover and exploit such a personal resonance can find great self-satisfaction. If that particular resonance strikes a social resonance then the accompanying social display of appreciation can add to the personal satisfaction to the individual.
That is the code of the libertine and one cannot disagree that the "social display of appreciation" indeed does contribute mightily to "personal satisfaction".
To apply it in other fields represents an implicit acceptance of transient cultural norms which happen to be in force at particular times and in particular places.
Spendius
My third paragraph had this statement "Few individuals discover and display a talent, a personal resonance that can truly excite public appreciation. Those who do display such a resonance are truly rewarded. However, I am not particularly interested in those few but I am interested in considering all the rest of us who have resonances (talents?) and especially all those that remain undiscovered by ourselves."
I think you must have stopped reading after two paragraphs.
Re: Quest for Our Individual Talents
coberst wrote:
Our first encounter with resonance, as the word is normally used, might have been when we first discovered on the playground swing that a little energy directed in synchronization with the swing's resonant frequency would produce outstanding movement. What a marvelous discovery. We might make similar marvelous discoveries if we decide, against all that we have learned in the past, that the intellect can be used as an end-in-it-self.[/[/i]quote] (* I love this analogy!)
What you've said here resonates with me Coberst, particularly because I've been reading about this very subject. Some interesting quotes I've come across that have bearing on it:
"Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment-the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is"- Jorge Luis Borges
*(and I would add that implied in that statement is also when s/he finds out "what s/he can do"- even if there is no formal recognition from anyone else).
"Sometimes snakes can't slough. They can't burst their old skin. Then they go sick and die inside the old skin, and nobody ever sees the new pattern. It needs a real desperate recklessness to burst your old skin at last. You simply don't care what happens to you, even if you rip yourself in two, so long as you do get out." - D.H. Lawrence
"The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them"- George Bernard Shaw
And an old favorite- "If you cannot be the poet, be the poem" - David Carradine
Thanks for posting this Coberst.
*edited because somehow I messed up the quote and I wanted to separate Coberst's words from my post.
Chuck wrote-
Quote:My third paragraph had this statement "Few individuals discover and display a talent, a personal resonance that can truly excite public appreciation.
You presumably mean general popularity which seems to me materialistic.
It seems we are born to work, find a job we can do whether we like it or not,earn money, pay the bills.
I always thought if we all do the job that we are good/enjoy/have a talent for, the world will be a better place.
Someone somewhere has my dream job and probably doesnt enjoy it.
Some people love cleaning/ironing, it could be said they have a talent for it.
Some people display their talent but is that for others so they gain a reward, or are they just following their talent for themselves for a contented life?
I wouldnt knock anybody for making money from a talent they have that they enjoy.im striving for that myself.
It seems after we have persude the career and brought up the family we can then relax and really discover ourselves.Its a shame it cant be done early in life.
MG-
I agree with you apart from the "It's a shame" bit.I think it a good thing that one doesn't learn too much too soon.
In a long distance race one doesn't sprint the first bit and life is something of a distance event.
I believe that talent is not the deciding factor. The deciding factor is fear.
There are those without fear, and they can do anything they set their mind to.
Then there are those who are afraid. Their fear, towards whatever it may be directed, is what prevents them from realizing their true potential.
spendius wrote:Chuck wrote-
Quote:My third paragraph had this statement "Few individuals discover and display a talent, a personal resonance that can truly excite public appreciation.
You presumably mean general popularity which seems to me materialistic.
You display an amazing ability to miss the point! Are you playing games or are ypu so blind as to my message? Read everything, when you stop mid-way you are likely to misunderstand.
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