Redefining Talent

20 Nov 2012

I believe we have culturally forgotten the true nature of talent. It seems talent is measured by how many tasks can be accomplished within a constrained set of resources. The impact of this dicatomony is a disorted view of talent.

How work gets done

Accomplishing a task is the result of first understanding the nature of the task. Next, a person must derive and execute an approach specific to their perception of the problem. Some approaches will be unsuccessful, and thus will require multiple approach derivations. Once a given or set of approaches are successful, the task is accomplished.

We’ll term this the solution cycle. 1. Understand task. 2. Derive approach. 3. Execute solution. 4. Repeat 1-3 until successful (aka, NEVER GIVE UP).

Ruber meets the road

The problem with defining talent the old way is that step 4 is overlooked. I’d wager perserverance through multiple solution cycles separates truly talented people from average. That’s why I hire eccentric & passionate people over smart people.