As I have never been on a golf course in my life, be wary when this column kicks off with a tribute to a golfer. That said, Paul McGinley’s gracious interview following the announcement of his Ryder Cup captaincy was a joy to hear. Anyone who has played in a team of any sort – at any level – knows what he meant about being the type of player who believes in the team. Indeed, his modesty about his own considerable achievements on the green in comparison with those other golfers on the European team were not just honest, but revealing.
Contrast McGinley’s humility and genuine delight at the superior talent of others around him with the behaviour of another sportsman in the news last week, Lance Armstrong. Armstrong saw in others’ successes his own failings and was prepared to do anything to be number one.
Armstrong’s entire sense of himself was wrapped up in being the winner, the best: the one who took all the plaudits. For McGinley, it is obvious success is a communal thing; something that can be shared, and can also be best honed and shaped by failures. It seems Armstrong couldn’t accept failure. He needed to be constantly recognised as the best.
One difference between the two men is how they see success and potential. Ultimately, Armstrong’s interpretation – either you had the talent or you didn’t – was all that counted to him. In the end his obsession ruined not just him and his team, but the integrity of the sport to which he devoted his life.
In McGinley’s case, his greatest achievement may well be his ability to marshall the talent at his disposal, seeing potential as an evolving attribute that can be developed and constantly improved.
Last Thursday, I contemplated both interpretations of potential as I waited in a queue to see teachers at my daughter’s first parent-teacher meeting of secondary school. They’re funny things, parent-teacher meetings; the potential for indignation and miscommunication is infinite.
South Dublin still has its fair share of Tiger mums and dads. God help the teacher who doesn’t recognise the inherent genius of their “gifted” child. To be fair, it also has a fair share of narrow-gauge teachers, for whom the points system is the only real barometer of a student’s success. Sure, they’ll talk about decency, emotional intelligence and the like, but at the end of the day they know the league tables are paramount; and that inside the head of the Tiger mum is a large scoreboard keeping tabs on every one of their special one’s achievements from being an early talker and walker right through to the first 11 hockey team and on to those magical 600 points in the Leaving.
But all teenagers are different and not everyone can be the best. So the real question for most parents is: how can their children reach their potential?
This is something that has perplexed psychologists for years and it is extremely important for the economy and society in general.
Is potential and thus talent inherent, something to be shown off that can’t endure failure? Or is it in constant development, something that can be improved on and motivated by setbacks?
How we see ability is material to how we live our lives.
Sometimes we hear certain children are ‘gifted’. We’re then very surprised if these young prodigies don’t achieve great things in later life.
Could it be that the way we look at talent explains why people reach their potential or not? Is it a gift or is it learned? This is not an academic question, but something fundamental to our quality of life, because underachievement brings with it all sorts of psychological and emotional trauma.
If we look at how children learn, we can see how some patterns repeat over and over again. Why, when a child is doing maths, for example, does she find herself getting frustrated and giving up – then finds she can’t do sums that she could do a week ago?
Could this be because we think talent is inherent and we simply aren’t clever enough to work things out?
Observing such black and white behaviour, American psychologists in the 1970s did a series of experiments, splitting teenagers in maths classes into two groups.
The first were told they weren’t trying hard enough. If they just put some more effort in they could get it. The other group of students were told nothing and left to their own devices.
Interestingly, the kids who were told they weren’t trying hard enough persisted in the face of failure and eventually succeeded. The ones who were left on their own gave up. So we have capable students giving up because they hit a setback, whereas other students (regardless of ‘talent’), if encouraged, develop ability.
This has been revealed over and over again, showing that people who believed talent was God-given, or that some people were gifted, limited their own potential. They concluded they were not up to it. Those people believed in fixed intelligence. But those who were told it was just a matter of looking at the problem again, eventually succeeded. They believed in developed intelligence.
Unfortunately, humans like the idea of fixed intelligence and can make the mistake of equating effort with a lack of ability. This is easier for all, the ones who have to try and don’t want to and those who think they don’t have to try and couldn’t be bothered.
Again, psychologists have shown via experiments that praising children for intelligence rather than effort saps their motivation, and close to half of those kids who were praised for intelligence overstated their results to their peers. This has huge implications.
The brilliant Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell, using this research that people who think they are clever overstate their cleverness and lie about it, made the point that Enron collapsed because of its cleverness, not despite it.
When people asked how could such clever people screw up, Gladwell’s answer was it was precisely because they were clever. When faced with evidence that their models weren’t so smart, the Enron managers lied; first to each other and then to the rest of the world.
Could the same thing have happened at Anglo? After years of being told and telling each other that they were clever, they were reinventing banking and had an innate ability to manage risk and make money, could they have just lied like the talent-obsessed kids?
Armstrong also believed in the ‘ability as a gift’ notion and defined himself as the best. When he decided he couldn’t be so legally, he pumped all sorts of stuff into his veins, cheated and lied; first to himself, then his team and then the world.
This is a very human thing to do. It’s not right, but it’s very human. McGinley’s view is the opposite, thinking that you can work on ability, try harder and get better, slowly.
When I see parents at the parent-teacher meetings obsessing about results and the points system as if ability were a gift their precious child simply has to have – because if not, it will be a reflection on the child and the parents – I wonder have we learned nothing from this momentous week in sport?
David McWilliams’ new book The Good Room is out now
Well ho-ly God! Now you’re sucking diesel! The good news from RTEs web 21/01/2013 “IBEC forecasting growth of 1.8% this year” “Euro zone surveys to offer hope as Japan eases” “China’s growth rebounds, but economy still vulnerable to global trade slowdown” “Oil prices fall, trading muted on US public holiday” Déjà vu One Two Three Four If I had ever been here before I would probably know just what to do Don’t you? If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel I would probably know just how to deal With all of you And I… Read more »
How can I comment when I agree I can’t insult or deride you on this? The education system of rote and memory is a menace to civilisation (of course I don’t want my doctor mix up my organs)
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Gotya
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Repeat after me David “I am unsure what way the economy will pan out” now if IBEC joins in at the chorus followed by others may reach a underrepresented truth? but i am not sure…
School creates conformists and teachers like boys and girls like that , what they dont’t like is the student that can critically think outside the box , it drives them nuts .Our schooling system teaches kids how to conform to what the state want and get a job , never really pushes entrepreneurship because its a risky game and most of the teachers have never taken an active part in real street kicking , hardball business .
Here is a good read from Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, a professor at Columbia and a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist for the World Bank and author of “The Price of Inequality:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/inequality-is-holding-back-the-recovery/?ref=opinion
Fame and Failure
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30601/30601-h/30601-h.htm#Page_311
I have emailed this to you twice before and many others but never got a reply,even to say it would be looked into.I know it is an unbelievable claim but when i phoned the Irish Embassy a few weeks ago it was confirmed by the Ambassadors Secretary that the Irish government did get an invite to the Keshe Foundation in Belgium.Here is the email i sent you. Over the past few years i have been following the work of an Iranain Scientist by the name of Mehran Keshe.He is the head of the Keshe Foundation in Belgium.He has been working… Read more »
FAKESBOOK DESTROYS KIDS MOTIVATION TO STUDY.
TOO EASY TO WASTE AWAY STUDY TIME.
-> ON SUPERFICIALITY + PEER INFLUENCE.
UP ALL NIGHT -> SLEEP THROUGH MATH
THE MOBILE KIDS -> A GENERATION LOST.
A GOVERNMENT SOLUTION ? HA
-> MAKE THE EXAMS EASIER!?
Academic elitism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_elitism
Hi, First of all an apology. I am sorry to all of you if this response is long winded but this article is one of the most important to be posted on the blog for as long as I am reading it and I just have to say what I have to say. Let me start with your reference David to Armstrong’s interpretation as you see it because without asking him you don’t know and are only supposing the same as me and everyone else on the blog. “Either you had the talent or you didn’t”. I don’t believe Armstrong… Read more »
There is a book about all of this. It is called “Why Talent is Over-rated”.
Ireland’s biggest perfomance impediment is cronyism, because it fits in with the ieda that talent comes from those related to previous big hitters. This is usually proven to be nonsense. Just look at the moment of crisis in Ireland, and we had a bunch of hereditary democrats running the country. They failed unceasingly. Eventually they got kicked out. Unfortunately another collection of hereditary democrats took their place.
Just Say No To Drugs ( others people money gold greed etc.)
David I have awarded you the Yellow Jersey and a Gold Medal today go and take a drug (A pint of the black stuff)you. have earned it after the event.
King of the hill top the peak…
The drug testers will be around for a sample of your piss so have lots of pints.
Not very long ago, I recall hearing many times that our (now) former Taoiseach was very “clever” in school & college, and we could look forward to a safe pair of hands at the helm. I’m sure he will graduate from Stanford with first class honors and go on to do even more tremendous things!! Anyway, great to hear that the economy is moving into an upward growth cycle, and we are set for an above par performance in 2013.
David,
Amen to that. It took me a while to get out of the winners & losers mindset of the leaving cert. If you are willing to work hard at something you will often end up ahead of much of the “talent”.
LongGone
Good Article David. The title says it all because society has become obsessed with winning and we are taught that competition is healthy but there is a difference between friendly competiton (like a game of 5 a side down the community centre) and self obsession Take Armstrong and Paul McGinley. Who is more successful of the two? McGinley of course and there is no reason to spell out why. Self Obsession is now rampant thanks to 50 years of programming and community is an old fashioned word from times past that has lost all meaning The smartest thing any one… Read more »
Very interesting and stimulating article.
Just got to reading it now.
There’s no excuse for working your socks off, ‘talented’ or not.
The theory of Social Compensation shows that, in group work, if a member has less ability, but high motivation, higher performers tend to be willing to put in more effort to compensate for them.
I can’t stand lazy people. Childre should be positively encouraged at every opportunity.
Someone said, why doesnt the governent force people over the age of 50 to retire, pay them a million pounds to do so ( less than the amount the government give away
that would then free up 50 million jobs?)
From personnel departments to humans as a resources or factory fodder learning to do tasks.
Charlie Chaplin ‘The Great Dictator’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FMNFvKEy4c
Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s
http://www.criterion.com/films/27526-modern-times
this man movie sentiment and clever massages are truer today modern tech makes even truer
But maybe the few will continue to control the many and fool them into thinking that individualism is is OK as individuals are easily controlled by the few – the 1%
OK back to Facebook now (whats on the other Chanel) we don’t wont to think the hard as thinking is is hard that why people don’t do it
By Elly Nowell
Why I sent Oxford a rejection letter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/19/why-i-sent-oxford-university-rejection-letter
The reason for ENRON and Madoff, was sheer criminality, far surpassed by LIBOR and now FED-BOR. Add in STEP or sheer wildeyed psychopathic mania, and we get a different picture. For sure they thought they were the favored, of Darwin, and yet they got caught. Remember DSK, he was so clever New York’s finest simply gave him another opportunity. Not really talent. What is it that makes them so sure they are favored? Well Bertrand Russell shows how talent is nurtured by the oligarchy. N otice there is the parallel Bertrand Russell draws to the Jesuits 2-level system of education.… Read more »
Human dynamics behind con-artistry is a field worth looking into.
The article when it touches on it is an interesting read.
“Tearing Down the Idle Talent”, that’s more like it!
[…] with much that he says on the economy. However, when he strayed recently into commenting on giftedness without having first researched the terminology, he goofed up badly. To put it […]
It is an interesting thing that a discussion of the merits of team leadership starts with golfers. There is in the Ryder cup little team playing. It is still individual against individual as is the usual game of golf. The team leader in this case is not exhorting the team to all work together but is involved in pulling together a group of individuals and hoping they will do their best to win. Armstrong on the other hand relied upon a team to place him in the best position to win. He would have pacers and other tactics to reserve… Read more »
What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Napoleon Hill–Think and Grow Rich.
Just as the elites controling the central banks corrupt western society so do they use ther unlimited cash to corrupt foreign countries to place Islamist regimes in power. The regimes are anti western which provides the scenario that western government must address. The effort needed to confront this international menace is used as the anti terrorist legislation to remove our domestic freedoms. Thus are the central banks enslaving us financially and physically as well.
http://www.thedailybell.com/28599/North-Africa-Explodes-DB-Readers-Get-News-Two-Years-Before-It-Happens
When the house of cards now called “the economy” comes tumbling down, watch our financial media call it a failure of Capitalism. But it won’t be; it will be a failure of our left-leaning Big Government and Academia.
Mark J. Lundeen
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_12/lundeen012013.html
Let’s look at a few of the prime beneficiaries of the Fed’s QE programs; the precious metals and the stock markets. —Mark Lundeen
I am not surprised at all. The education in Ireland is not as great as everybody in Ireland says it is. I am not only one who is shocked by lack of knowledge and skills of new graduates produced by Irish educational system. Unfortunately almost all parents, teachers, civil servants and also politicians are products of this system so you couldn’t be surprised by how it is. Is there a solution? Of course there are always solutions. Some might be cheap some expensive but the key would be to discuss them, think about them, test them whenever possible, evaluate them… Read more »
Strange that everyone here bemoaning the state of education, have not attempted to study why this has happened. It did not drop from the sky like we are told the banking crisis did. A paradigm shift began with a conscious decision on the part of the Western financial elite, in cooperation with circles from the former Soviet Union, to change the values of society. In the domain of education in 1963, the founder of the Club of Rome, Dr. Alexander King (then, Commissioner for the O.E.C.D. in Paris), had proposed an education reform for the O.E.C.D. nations, and this original… Read more »
As is not uncommon David uses odd analogies to point to the education system and the expectation within the system by parents he is not specifically referring to the gifted it is a reference to parent’s expectations of their children and in quotes their “gifted” children. This is about conforming to the group think from cradle to grave and how people are fooled in to believing that points system is a measure of success and results mater at any cost. This is about how success is measured, was Oppenheimer a success or a failure? was Sean Fitz a success or… Read more »
Thought provoking article David. I think in the most simplest and truest expression, we get the brains we’ve earned.
Ireland Inc a factory imprisonment I am in my chicken coop today wondering will I be fed by my master or will he cut me bleed me I have given more than most but only have what I began with my bones now soft my muscles weak I dare not move for fear I’m weak my brain hurts to think I am mute was it me have I devoted a crime worthy of this reformatory jack the master he is alright yet his crimes slates and imprisons me how can I escaped when i am asleep time to for despatch… Read more »
This was a very good article. I said so already but feel like saying it again because it has been a great conversation especially for the contributions from our good friend Tony Brogan. The name reminds me of Jim Brogan and now I will turn down the lights and revisit a story from a long time ago that emphasises the difference between sport and competition. Any true football fan will like this and I know David is a big football man. It is a story of truimph and naivety Compare the differences .. Celtic 4 Manchester United 1, 1966 The… Read more »
Put a silver spoon in your mouth
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/1/22_Embry__Gold_Super-Spike_To_Be_Dwarfed_By_The_Mania_In_Silver.html
Slow learners are we not?
The budget should be balanced. The Treasury should be refilled. The public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled. And the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
-Cicero, 55 BC
Posted by Ranting Andy Miles Franklin We have passed the point of no return, where we can actually get our house back in order. They pretend they are fighting on Capital Hill, but they really are not. They are arguing over power, spin, who looks good, who looks bad. They are all trying to preserve the system where they can spend what they want, take care of their friends, and print money when they need it. -Ron Paul The leverage deployed by the big four U.S. banks is obscene. They are not brilliant masters of markets; but rather, front-runners with… Read more »
http://www.arabianmoney.net/gold-silver/2013/01/21/last-time-the-us-mint-ran-out-of-american-eagles-the-silver-price-jumped-from-34-to-49-an-ounce/
NEWS FROM THE DAVOS WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM IS CONVEYED BY A CARTOON IN BANGKOK’S THE NATION: A picture of a mountain looking like the pyramid on the dollar bill, with an eye looking out at the top. A sign says “World Ponzi Pyramid Forum,” and the Eye is speaking: “The situation is alarming — more and more people are becoming aware that the world banking system is a scam!”
Tearing down talent idols, going after Enron or AIB as if it was “clever” not criminal, taking examples of sport as “achievement” and role models for kids?
Add to that the anarcho-capitalists of the Fraser Institute and the anarcho-banksters printing without pause. Add further Obama’s support of Al-Quaeda, anarcho-politics.
A new dark age sweeps the transatlantic.
That is what we have to fight now.
I think this article generalises a bit.I’m a believer in the concept of some people having inherent talent in particular areas. However, wise parents of talented children will be careful to stress that developing that talent takes motivation, hard work and years of effort. It would be a very silly parent who believed that it was a good idea to praise potential or intelligence without doing anything else to give that child the tools to utilise their gifts. One of the things parents of very intelligent or talented children worry about is the need to prepare them for failure, the… Read more »
“Tearing Down the Talent Idol” In the search for WMD in Iraq they set out to prove they existed they could not prove it but the Hegemony (fear/loyalty to the USA) within the subordinates in the USAs system convinced themselves they existed so as to please their masters and the try to prove to those that wanted them to exist (their masters) the whistleblower are long forgotten some unemployed some killed themselves. As Bradley Manning what happens when you tell the truth of a wrong doing? What happens to a whistleblower within Armstrong crew, Anglo, Enron or the Irish finance… Read more »
Sterling Strength
If Gold depends on Trust as Money value does therefore the value of Gold cannot be predicted by any interested parties for a gain and will only find its value on what it should be to retain that Trust .
John ALLEN
“Armstrong also believed in the ‘ability as a gift’ notion and defined himself as the best. When he decided he couldn’t be so legally, he pumped all sorts of stuff into his veins, cheated and lied; first to himself, then his team and then the world.” “This is a very human thing to do. It’s not right, but it’s very human.” McGinley’s view is the opposite, thinking that you can work on ability, try harder and get better, slowly. The emphasized sentence apparently has opened the door to calling ENRON “clever”, when in fact ENRON was a criminal enterprise from… Read more »
“Let us make sure we use the best money that money can buy!!” Let us make sure we use the best money that money can buy!” so says Tony Brogan; bril lol My tongue is stuck in my tooth where my gold filling was but i will go the the mint and ask them to print some paper money so i can buy gold to replace my lost filling with gold…. oh! have i just made gold a commodity and at how many money units? Tony! i can now put my tongue in my cheek without it getting diverted to… Read more »
What Happens in DAVOS!
buy ya-all
That should have been ‘by’ not ‘buy’ jees i could have upset the gold commodity prices
MONEY PERCEPTION
BY ya all