Critical Review: the Talent Code (Excerpts from Chaper 1: Sweet Spot)

Talent Code: Carving the Statue of David Review: Coyle, Daniel (2009) The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born, it’s Grown. Excerpts from Chapter 1- The Sweet Spot Whether talent is born or acquired is a hotly debated topic, not only amongst psychologist but also common people. In daily life we can observe that some people are admirably good at some task while the others are not. Some people are good at singing, cooking, playing chess or whatsoever, whereas, there are also people who appear to be good at nothing. But is this so? Is talent transferred from generation to generation genetically or gift to the chosen ones from the Divine providence? Daniel Coyle, the author of the book The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born, its Grown, may have answers to many of our questions. In his book, Coyle argues that natural talent is a mere myth. We all can acquire any talent, if we know how. A skill is chiseled by a rhythmic pattern of failure and success, leading to the correction of errors. Here the author gives the example of Brunio from Brazil, who practiced football freestyle tricks, encountered failure and then, learns to perform the elastico trick. Similar was the case with Jennie from Dallas, who learned to sing after following the similar rhythmic pattern (see p. 13) Throughout the chapter, the author who himself was a sports enthusiast, emphasized the talent of Brazilian players. Besides training, the author also highlights other favorable factors through which we conventionally attribute the such high concentration of talented people such as climate, diverse population, the urge for greatness and the desire to escape poverty through this beautiful game. The author claims to have found another secret weapon of the Brazilian players. On page 16, he presents an activity comprised of two columns. One containing