@Todd30 - is it talent or skill? 
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Both talent and skill
[quote=“Jerzy, post:22, topic:74437”]
is it talent or skill?
[/quote]There are parts I had learned but it is the talent to execute. Put it this way, I see a recipe. I evaluate what the recipe consists of. Skills perform the cooking skills but the talent takes the recipe into my own perception. I use recipes as guides and I do not use rules,… there are no rules in cooking just flavors and pairing flavors.
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Thats what I am talking about! Yeah! Talent and skill = balance. Like a edge on a knife, both sides have to be worked to cut properly. That is why you apply a steel to a knife. Not to sharpen it but to straighten the edges.
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@Karacal @Todd30 @Shamrock @Wanda3 @45IPAC @G.Washington @PossumSlayer1
IS THIS SKILL OR TALENT
<< Tim Schmidt owner/ceo of USCCA >>
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Skill is something you learn. Talent, is being able to apply what you learned effectively.
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Read all these musings and would like to add a few…
Is it possible you are drawn to things you feel passionate about and that passion or ‘calling’ allows a natural talent to bloom? The inclination to be a part of something (like suddenly realizing I enjoy shooting) could underly a latent talent or reveal a talent you knew nothing of! (One instructor called me a bad ass because as a newbie, I hit the target amazingly well…for a newbie…) An interest or excitement about a topic can lead to a passion about it. The passion can be fine tuned with the skill-set including learning new aspects, practicing how, repetition, making mistakes and succeeding, enjoying the process…
Passion does not equal talent necessarily but it seems being drawn to something can give birth to talent otherwise undiscovered…. Skill seems to be a learned behavior…
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I totally ignored the passion component. No doubt, talented or not, if you are passionate you have a much better path to improving your skills.
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Always liked this quote.
“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft." - Will Smith”
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It’s like that one guy at the range…
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I was a fighter pilot and then an instructor pilot for new USAF fliers. There is no doubt that talent is critical. That is the difference between someone who climbs into the pilot seat and someone who “straps it on” and owns it. I can teach anyone (well, almost) to fly, but the talented ones went on to be super-stars.
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I think both talent and skill are both important. When I went in the in the 80s I noticed that all of the guys who admitted that they didn’t shoot as well as the guys who never shot a rifle in their lives. I was one of the guys who had the rude awakening. Maybe we were being cocky I mean we had guys who were on the rifle team and a few who had been shooting since we were 10 years old. but the best shot in our training company had only seen guns in movies. Maybe we had too many bad habits. Either way you need to practice your skills to improve your talent. To quote Brad Pitt in The Inglorious Basterds, "How do get to Carnigy Hall? Practice!
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IMO…
Skill is being able to do something that doesn’t come naturally.
“Skill level” is how well you have developed that skill.
Talent helps reduce the learning curve of the skill, as well as the rate of progession for achieving higher skill levels.
Neither of these insinuate the ability to perform under varying circumstances and resources. I think experience might help with that.
Then there’s the philosophy that a skill/talent for a tool is different than a skill/talent for the concepts that require such tools and the adaptability for changing technology and tools related to that concept. As an example, NASA scientists sent people to the moon with slide rulers, however the tools have changed since then.
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I remember hearing a saying “if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” Seems like he surrounded himself with the right mentors and made things happen.
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Be a leader, not a follower!
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Like a dog sled team. “If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.”
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I can totally relate. I picked up guitar in my mid twenties and figured out very quickly that you can take lessons, study, practice and get fairly good at playing but some people just have a natural gift for it and I was not one of those people. I think the difference between skill and talent is how easy things come to you in a certain area, whether it be music or martial arts (an area I’ve trained extensively in, as well). Usually you can spot the difference by whether they are mechanical in their motions or if it just looks fluid and seamless. I’ve seen people who have a black belt in a certain discipline of martial arts and by watching them train I could tell that they would get their a** kicked in a real street fight because all they knew were the moves, it didn’t come naturally to them. On the flip side, have seen others with much lower degree belts for whom fighting seemed to come natural and who you know would probably come out on top if their butt was on the line.
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This does vary for everyone, but I think a skill is simply something you learn that you now know how to do. Being talented at that is having a higher ability to do it.
Using firearms as an example, I can learn the skill of doing a reload but simply knowing how to do it doesn’t mean I am talented at it. Spending hours training that skill to become an expert at that skill is what makes the talent.
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