I'm not talking about mental limitations surrounding perseverance. I'm talking about mental limitations surrounding my talent at drawing.
Take music. It is documented that approximately 4% of the population suffers from what is described as "congenital amusia", commonly known as being tone deaf. From the Wikipedia article on the subject (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusia#Congenital_amusia):
"Individuals who suffer from congenital amusia seem to lack the musical predispositions that most people are born with. They are unable to recognize or hum familiar tunes even though they have normal audiometry and above average intellectual and memory skills. Also, they do not show sensitivity to dissonant chords in a melodic context, which, as discussed earlier, is one of the musical predispositions exhibited by infants."
Now I'm really good at music. From an early age, the things that are hard for congenital amusiacs came easily to me. It was really obvious from an early age that I was good at it. As a result, I've spent at least 10k hours of my life doing music and achieved a high level.
It makes no sense to me to say "well how do congenital amusiacs know that they won't get better if they just give up?" Without some extraordinary evidence, it is not reasonable to claim that if a congenital amusiac just spends 10k hours, they will become superb at it.
The reason I didn't spend much time drawing is not because I generally lack perseverance, it is because it was extremely obvious that I am not talented at it. I know this because I know what it feels like to have talent at something.
Take music. It is documented that approximately 4% of the population suffers from what is described as "congenital amusia", commonly known as being tone deaf. From the Wikipedia article on the subject (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusia#Congenital_amusia):
"Individuals who suffer from congenital amusia seem to lack the musical predispositions that most people are born with. They are unable to recognize or hum familiar tunes even though they have normal audiometry and above average intellectual and memory skills. Also, they do not show sensitivity to dissonant chords in a melodic context, which, as discussed earlier, is one of the musical predispositions exhibited by infants."
Now I'm really good at music. From an early age, the things that are hard for congenital amusiacs came easily to me. It was really obvious from an early age that I was good at it. As a result, I've spent at least 10k hours of my life doing music and achieved a high level.
It makes no sense to me to say "well how do congenital amusiacs know that they won't get better if they just give up?" Without some extraordinary evidence, it is not reasonable to claim that if a congenital amusiac just spends 10k hours, they will become superb at it.
The reason I didn't spend much time drawing is not because I generally lack perseverance, it is because it was extremely obvious that I am not talented at it. I know this because I know what it feels like to have talent at something.