{"id":14134,"date":"2021-03-05T03:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=14134"},"modified":"2023-09-25T18:57:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T10:57:06","slug":"talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/talent\/","title":{"rendered":"talent is not rare, talent is clueless and scared"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(see also: greatness is deviance<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was younger I thought that talent was rare, but as I get older I realize that the answer is so much weirder than that. talent is not ~super~ rare. but talent hides, talent often doesn’t want to be found, talent is scared, talent is clueless<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you could revise the definition of talent such that “it’s only talent if it’s also brave, bold, sensitive and savvy, otherwise it’s just sparkling potential” or something of the sort… I’m in two minds about that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it’s just so strange to contrast how there’s this whole sphere of people who have minimal talent, minimal taste, but they’re just really loud and obnoxious about LARPing success, and they even get some of it in a tedious sense then there’s talent that’s scared, or just clueless<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like with each passing year I am more and more confident that most of the best artists in the world just go unknown. probably the best science\/tech minds too. Elon has that anecdote about going to Netscape to ask for a job, standing in the lobby, being shy\/nervous and going home<\/p>\n\n\n\n

regardless of what your assessment is of Elon, like, my point isn’t about him, it’s about all the others. it’s about all the planes that don’t make it home. all the creative spirit that dies, or is locked in stasis, or closeted <\/p>\n\n\n\n

we have *billions* of people in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how many people do you know? I have made it a priority in life to aggressively get to know as many people as I possibly can. I would say I know like… 10,000 people, maybe. Push it up an order of magnitude, 100,000 people that rounds down to like 0% of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

every single time I host an ii salon, overqualified experts show up who make me feel like *they* should be the host instead I host a salon about aesthetics, a professional semiotician shows up salon about optics, iirc some guy with 30+ years experience in related fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but \u2013 and not to project too much assumptions about these people \u2013 for the most part, they don’t want to do the hosting themselves. it’s too much visibility, maybe. perhaps it’s professionally risky, idk. and I respect that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but what it tells me is that if I make bold, audacious leaps of faith there will be people who show up quietly behind the scenes to support me to lend me their strength, their knowledge, their expertise it’s a huge honor and also like a massive societal-level optical illusion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the world is held up, held together, by all these people that few people really know about all the attention is focused on whoever *volunteers* to be the face of the operations, the face of the movements which is it’s own kind of chaotic hell, yes…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Consider the story of Chris Blackwell of Island Records<\/a>. Chris is disproportionately responsible for the worldwide popularity of reggae as a music genre. He started Island Records with $10,000 of his parents’ money. Who are the unfunded Chris Blackwells right now?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as a person who’s very sensitive about things like credit, my first instinct is “we should give more credit where it is due!” but funnily-ironically, often these people don’t *want* to have their names and pictures plastered on everything so even this has to be managed artfully<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it’s just wild to me, the conflicting messages in the commons. I have very rarely met a talented person who needed to Hustle and Grind. I mean, ok- I don’t want to be prescriptive here each person gets to make their own choices about how much exposure they want but still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

everything is just described wrongly and the language is all wrong and our general mainstream concept of everything is also all wrong. there is massive opportunity here, but it’s not signposted, so it takes brave, patient, persistent people to figure it out and bring light to all<\/p>\n\n\n\n

there must be so many geniuses or potential geniuses in our midst who we’ll never hear from because they’re averse to dealing with harassment and abuse. if we get better at solving the abuse problem we will uplift the whole species<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the fact that greatness is so clustered in space and time suggests that it is much more of a team effort than anybody typically thinks<\/p>— Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) February 11, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>