Not talent? Some people violently deny that people have any difference in potential. I can't even formulate a reply, how do you argue with someone who claims the sky is orange and never blue?

Talent is roughly the ability to learn and apply that learning. So you want people to have 'constant learning', but ignore that they first have to be capable of learning that material at all.

Talent definitely does matter. Michael Jordan trained like a madman it's true - but training didn't make him that tall. Genetic potential fully realized (through effort over time) is that part of the equation.

The reason Jordan will always be better than Kobe, according to Phil Jackson: Jordan's hands are insanely large and allow him to do things later than Kobe because he can grip the ball at any position.

Couldn't Kobe get surgery to fix that?

Wouldn't that be cheating?

Apparently not:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/tennis-star-to-und...

Surgery to improve sporting performance is OK but steroids are not. Weird, huh?

Ah, a Canadian ;) Those hockey players. Btw - those 2 Rails projects of yours are well done.

I think you mean, "You must have worked really hard on those 2 Rails projects to make them so good."

Constant learning is part of grit, and you can't take talent out of the equation.

Talent in athletic fields is much easier to determine, because the factors are often hard physical limitations: length of body, weight, muscle mass, balance.

Talent in intellectual endeavors is hard to define. In the liberal arts it's sort of an awareness for context, and recognizing unique ideas. In the sciences it's often a capability for symbolic manipulation and internal visualization. However, since the brain doesn't have hard physical limitations, much of this can be developed with extensive training, so that slight weaknesses can be overcome.

>since the brain doesn't have hard physical limitations, ...

That's a pretty extraordinary claim.

No it isn't. There are traffic accident injuries, where people lose large parts of their brain, and the brain compensates.

By comparison, if you would lose your right leg, your body will not grow a new one.