In article , Giff wrote:

Sandman:
Like who?

Plenty, sorry I can't give you an example of someone that we both
know.

Maybe you can give me examples of people that you know of that have spent an
almost identical amount of time practicing a specific skill yet are not
comparable in skill level? Or are you just in reference to anecdotal references?

Giff:
How do you explain that?

Sandman:
It's either lack of interest or lack of time. Either they aren't
practicing the same amount of time or they are, but they're not as
interested as the guy who ended up better skilled at it.

You sound so certain.

I feel pretty certain, thanks.

Do you have scientific studies backing up your
assertions?

Of course, A good starting point is the studies by ‎Anders Ericsson, specifically
"The Making of an Expert" from 2007 or "Giftedness and evidence for reproducibly
superior performance" from the same year.

Probably not, also because such an experiment would be really
difficult to perform. I guess we could say that this is your
opinion, and that I have a different one.

It's not my opinion only. There are many studies done in this area, and yes -
they are psychology studies so they hardly result in cold hard facts, but you can
draw reasonable conclusions from them.

Also, it's my personal experience. I am an "artist" in the meaning that I paint,
draw, take photos and much more creative work. I obviously wouldn't say I "excel"
at anything of the aforementioned, but I know I'm better than your normal Joe at
most of it.

I also know that the reason I don't excel in it is because I haven't done it
enough, not because I'm not "talented" enough or because I wasn't "born" with it.

All of the creative things I do are pursued interests, things I enjoy doing into
which I have invested time to be better at it. Probably not *enough* time to
"excel" at it, of course, but being somewhere between "unskilled" and "excelling"
at it means that I can discern what got me from point A to point B, and it wasn't
some god-given "talent" in my genes, it was countless hours sitting with a pen
and paper or a brush, and everything looked like **** from the start, but it
progressively got better.

The point is, the reason I'm not a better painter is not because I'e reached some
supposed "talent threshold", it's 100% due to me not having or not spending
enough time to hone the skills I do have.

--
Sandman