| | I don't have the sentimental connection to Michael Jackson's memory that most of our generation does, so his passing doesn't invoke the sort of memorials made by those who have been awed by his talent as they were growing up. Indeed, in the circles where I was raised, Michael Jackson was more or less a symbol of all that is wrong in this sinful world.
But putting aside the judgment of his character, I've realized he offers an important lesson for today's wired generation. Numerous news reports mention the hours and hours he spent perfecting his craft. He didn't let natural talent keep him from learning, adapting, and working the necessary hours to become even better.
One of the things I've learned while writing my thesis is that in many ways my mental habits have been as affected by twenty-first century technologies as the freshies I am tempted to skewer. I want to skim instead of reading and re-reading to absorb content, style, and approach. It would be so much easier to write out a chirpy blog post than to research, plan, draft, revise, and adapt 70 pages of text. I want to click over to another site, another blog, another Facebook page instead of thinking through the complexities of the large and unwieldy topics of discourse and networks and self-determinism.
There's a part of me that wishes my advisor would say, "Hang it up. You have no idea what you're doing, you don't have what it takes, and you'll never get it." I would be off the hook and could go back to my comfortable blog reader where I can effortlessly skip from outrage to delight to bland amusement with just a tap, secure in knowing I don't have "it." No more struggling to commit complicated ideas to paper. No more anxiety over using academic lingo correctly. No more sweating about referencing the work of people I know personally and worrying I'll totally distort their words.
That's why the myth of talent can be so intoxicating. It whispers in our ear, "If at first you don't succeed, don't bother." The myth of talent says, "If it's worth doing, it'll be super easy." (As you can see, the myth of talent isn't terribly witty.)
But people like Michael Jackson (actually, most everyone who is good at what they do) remind us that even if you have boatloads of innate talent, you aren't going anywhere unless you work it. Which makes the whole question of "having it" pretty much irrelevant.
Talent or no, success requires work, determination, and a willingness to get it wrong a few times along the way.
And now that I've pretty much contradicted my earlier post, I'm going to put away my soapbox and get back to work. |
| | Posted 7/1/2009 8:29 PM - 24 Views - 6 eProps - 3 comments
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