Critical Review: the Talent Code Essay

TalentCode:CarvingtheStatueofDavid Review:Coyle,Daniel(2009)TheTalentCode:Greatnessisn’tborn,it’sGrown.Excerpts fromChapter1-TheSweetSpot Whether talent is born or acquired is a hotly debatedtopic,notonlyamongstpsychologistbut also common people. In daily life we can observe that some people are admirably good at sometaskwhiletheothersarenot.Somepeoplearegoodatsinging,cooking,playingchessor hatsoever,whereas,therearealsopeoplewhoappeartobegoodatnothing.Butisthisso?Is alenttransferredfromgenerationtogenerationgeneticallyorgifttothechosenonesfromthe Divineprovidence?DanielCoyle,theauthorofthebookTheTalentCode:Greatnessisn’tborn, itsGrown,mayhaveanswerstomanyofourquestions. Inhisbook,Coylearguesthatnaturaltalentisameremyth.Weallcanacquireanytalent,ifwe 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, encoun tered failure and then, learns to perform the elastico trick. Similar was the case with Jennie from Dallas, who learned to sing after following thesimilar rhythmicpattern(seep.13) Throughoutthechapter,theauthorwhohimselfwasasportsenthusiast,emphasizedthetalent ofBrazilianplayers.Besidestraining,theauthoralsohighlightsotherfavorablefactorsthrough which we conventionally attribute the such high concentration of talented people such as climate,diversepopulation,theurgeforgreatnessandthedesiretoescapepovertythroughthis beautifulgame.TheauthorclaimstohavefoundanothersecretweaponoftheBrazilianplayers. On page 16, he presents an activity comprised of twocolumns.Onecontainingfullyspelled pairofwordsandthewordsinothercolumnshadtheirvowelsmissing(however,youcouldstill guess the whole word). We