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Developing Talent in Young People (Benjamin Bloom):

Another great book for parents, teachers, and students.

The greatest revelation this book makes, is that talent requires time and effort.  There was no instances of extraordinary talent developing without at least ten years of concentrated effort into the skill in question.  It shows that our talents and skills are the results of a grand accumulative effort.  Every year you do not put effort into a talent of your choosing, is a year of accumulation lost, forever.  Time is not on our side.

For each trade, it showcases the importance of parents, elementary school, junior high school, high school, college, university, professors, fellow students, etc.  The importance of some of these entities is negligible, which is important to recognize.  (I also suggest reading Frank Smith's Insult to Intelligence for understanding the role of school and where school goes wrong.)  I strongly related my passions of game and graphics programming to the section on talented mathematicians, that is, right up until the college and university level where they headed in a completely different direction than myself which explains their extraordinary success and my lack thereof.

Another revelation in this book is that you must surround yourself or associate yourself with those who are doing what it is you are trying to do.  This applies more for certain trades than others, but it certainly helps to have someone who understands your passion.  In hindsight, it is undeniable that I would have been more successful had I met just one other person (other than my brother, Jason Doucette) who was also involved in game and graphics programming, just to help point me in the right direction and get the right tools for the job.  Having Jason on my side was an incredible help in the advancement of my programming skills, but he was ultimately bound by the same limitations and barriers that I was from sharing the same household.

See Also:

• Recommended Books
• Education Quotes
• Parenting Quotes
• Personal Quotes

By: Matthew Doucette
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