Muscle for Life

Why can some people do things so much better than others? There’s a question us humans have been wondering about for a very long time. Many believe it’s due to extraordinary amounts of innate talent--that nature ultimately dictates who can do what and how well they can do it, and that our strengths and weaknesses are more or less immutable. On the other hand, some people say that talent has very little to do with it, and that outstanding abilities can be mostly explained by hard work and dedication, which anyone has the capacity for. This is a confusing topic for good reason. We’ve probably known people who have gotten very good at things without appearing to work very hard at it, as well as people who initially displayed absolutely no aptitude for something work tirelessly at it for years without ever becoming excellent. What does this mean? That luck and randomness are the best predictors of success in any field and endeavor? Well, according to my guest on today’s episode, Geoff Colvin, both talent and hard