Or do you believe that people can overcome anything given time or patience to a certain point and be good at anything no matter how bad they were at it?
Take the example of art and athletics. Some people believe they cannot draw well, but I believe everyone can exhibit some drawing talent to a point.. it just take great practice and the willingness to study how others have done it before to learn how you can do it... As far as athletics, anything can be improved upon no matter how terrible you are
Yes, there are those who are naturally great without great trial... but I think people can do anything with passable goodness if effort is put into it. Denote, I'm not the complete optimist and saying you can be great at something.. I'm just trying to prove my point that I think anyone can be good at something.
Thats a hard question to come upon. Sure I believe that everyone can have an artistic talent and anyone can be a fair athlete if they work at it. But think about this.
Can everyone sing well?
The answer is obviously no. Some people can put hours of work into singing and sound horrible. Our natural abilities will restrict us in some places and not in other places. It really depends who you are and what you are doing. Really, no one can be good at everything and I think that is because of natural restrictions.
Ah ha, see that example can be easily countered. If you have the vocal coaches and the money to do it... everyone can sing to a point of being "good"... not anywhere near great.. but passable. Just take a look at all the teenage girl tv stars that went into singing on a whim. It's not like they really have any natural talent, but they're a famous face, young kids will want their cd's so people sign them and pour money into vocal coaches ect...
Quote : "but I believe everyone can exhibit some drawing talent to a point.."
People are gifted in many different ways, and some more than others. That has been proven through science with the term 'savant'. These savants are incredible at the knowledge based memory they have and are able to execute that memory at any given moment in time. I do believe no amount of practice or sheer luck is going to make the 'average human' a savant.
I am a firm believer that the phrase 'practice makes perfect' is abused.
Although, a recent study on neuron transmitters in the brain HAS proven that the production of mylin directly corresponds to the frequency of use of that specific neuron transmitters; and, as you infer, more mylin means the easier it is for that task or function to be carried out. Sure, some simple tasks such as learning how to drive can be perfected with practice, driving is not to be considered a natural ability or a 'gift'/talent.
Some people are just restricted. Some people are born with just no coordination and will never be able to play sports or be good at it no matter how hard they work, I think that applies to nearly everything.
I guess I should have been more specific, I'm not talking about things such as memory recall.. I'm talking more along the lines of actions such as skiing or throwing batons... drawing.. dribbling a soccer ball.. ect
Yes Natural abilities hold most if not all people back from allmost if not all things
Poker.. please explain why you think that
Well Silvie, I guess that for most things there are no restrictions. I guess that some people are not good at such a thing becasue they either do not want to do it or get fed up with trying because they have to work much harder then others. I believe that the mental gives in before the body does. WHen a person mentally closes down it then becomes impossible. With the youth of today it is not hard to get someone to mentally close down on a sport or an activity. Yes mostly everyone (with maybe a few exceptions) has the physical ability to be somewhat good. It is just too dificult for some people. By difficult I mean mentally, not physically.
Interesting question. I'm going to say yes, they are. My example: programming. The experience of programming teachers has consistently shown that there is a huge distinction between two groups of students; those who "get it" and those who do not. Some people just do not have the ability to think the way that developing and implementing an algorithm requires. This isn't because of a lack of motivation; some of the ones who don't get it go on to become programmers who write bad code. I remember reading something that said that some computer science graduates could not write a "fizzbuzz" program or struggled with it for over 10 minutes. (print the numbers from 1 to 100, but if the number is divisible by 3, print "fizz" instead, if the number is divisible by 5, print "buzz" instead, and if it's divisible by both, print "fizzbuzz" instead). Any student that's taken even one year of programming should be able to do that in less than 5 minutes.
I think that no matter how hard one tries, a limit will be reached. As for "passable goodness", it depends on how high you set that bar, but I think that for any reasonable definition of "passable goodness", there will be people who simply cannot do it that well.
I think it is important to define what a "natural" ability is before this topic can really be discussed, because if a "natural" ability is one of mental or physical origins, then I do believe that it can restrict people from realizing their potential assuming these restrictions were not in place. There are exceptions to this rule though, and I will name one for example:
It is said (often referred to in bodybuilders) that all types of people fall under three categories of natural ability. These three categories are classified as Ectomorphs, Endomorphs, and Mesomorphs. An Ectomorph is an individual who is very thin, and has trouble adding both fat and muscle to their body (due to a high metabolism). An Endomorph is the total opposite; they have the ability to gain both muscle and fat weight very easily. A Mesomorph is somewhere in the 'ideal' middle; they can add muscle weight very easily but not fat mass. These were once originally thought to be characteristics of a person's natural ability and essentially their traits - similar to how Spaz was talking about people who "get it" in programming and those who "don't". However, it is now known that with intense training and a rigorous diet, Ectomorphs and Endomorphs can change their body type to a Mesomorph, and the reverse can also happen to a Mesomorph. What I'm trying to say is that I feel that there are serious restrictions from what I am saying a "natural" ability is, however, it is possible with work to overcome MOST of these barriers.