Scan barcode
A review by fmoreno
The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. by Daniel Coyle
4.0
We've all heard it before: either you're a genius or you're not. Either you're born with it or you don't. We grow up listening to these "truths" and, consequently, we start to believe them and we conform ourselves to the idea that we weren't born with super skills. Daniel Coyle brings us in this book a very simple idea: talent is not something we're born with, it's something that we can work at.
Daniel Coyle has deeply researched this topic - he begins the book with a clear thesis and then goes on to support it with scientific evidence and the work that has been made throughout the years by scientists that are still curious about talent. One of the most important findings of the science of talent is myelin. Myelin is a substance that surrounds our nerve cells. Its goal to insulate those cells and increase the rate at which information is passed along them. Myelin is an essential substance for a number of functions, like walking, reading, motor functions. In fact, myelin is fundamental for every skill development. That knowledge makes all the difference because that means that we can talent can be developed and that means that talent is not something predefined.
The author goes on to recount the experiences and the knowledge he gathered while travelling the world looking for talent hotbeds he could study and he provides numerous examples - Brazilian footballers, KIPP, tennis players, baseball players, singers, etc. I found it really interesting the way the author described their routines, the master coaches' methods and methodologies they applied. More important than that, I found it wonderful how the author described their "failures". None of the methodologies described were perfect on day one, none of the talents Coyle mentions throughout the book were successes on day one. They all were perfected, continuously worked on and that makes them all the more human. None of them stop working on their skills and the one thing that makes them talented is the work they put in, not some predestined genius they were born with.
I think this is an interesting book for parents: there's this idea that we can find what kids' talents are by putting them in an endless number of activities such as soccer, ballet, swimming, running, piano, guitar... that puts an enormous amount of pressure on any kid to succeed in all these activities. This book shows us that we should be attentive to the child's interests and to act on those interests. For me, this book also drove home an important truth: I always thought I wasn't destined to become a writer (of any sort). But that's not true. There's no such thing as being destined for something. There's only working at being something.
Daniel Coyle has deeply researched this topic - he begins the book with a clear thesis and then goes on to support it with scientific evidence and the work that has been made throughout the years by scientists that are still curious about talent. One of the most important findings of the science of talent is myelin. Myelin is a substance that surrounds our nerve cells. Its goal to insulate those cells and increase the rate at which information is passed along them. Myelin is an essential substance for a number of functions, like walking, reading, motor functions. In fact, myelin is fundamental for every skill development. That knowledge makes all the difference because that means that we can talent can be developed and that means that talent is not something predefined.
The author goes on to recount the experiences and the knowledge he gathered while travelling the world looking for talent hotbeds he could study and he provides numerous examples - Brazilian footballers, KIPP, tennis players, baseball players, singers, etc. I found it really interesting the way the author described their routines, the master coaches' methods and methodologies they applied. More important than that, I found it wonderful how the author described their "failures". None of the methodologies described were perfect on day one, none of the talents Coyle mentions throughout the book were successes on day one. They all were perfected, continuously worked on and that makes them all the more human. None of them stop working on their skills and the one thing that makes them talented is the work they put in, not some predestined genius they were born with.
I think this is an interesting book for parents: there's this idea that we can find what kids' talents are by putting them in an endless number of activities such as soccer, ballet, swimming, running, piano, guitar... that puts an enormous amount of pressure on any kid to succeed in all these activities. This book shows us that we should be attentive to the child's interests and to act on those interests. For me, this book also drove home an important truth: I always thought I wasn't destined to become a writer (of any sort). But that's not true. There's no such thing as being destined for something. There's only working at being something.