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It does look almost like magic, and it is an amazing achievement, but mostly it's down to dedication and hard work, not talent. Talking about "talent" in this context is almost always down-playing the work that's gone into it.

The number of people who genuinely have talent in this sort of thing is very, very small. For the vast majority it's a willingness to work on it, and a good teacher. You can be an auto-didact, but that's then an additional skill.

Almost anyone can learn 3, can learn Mills Mess, can learn the basics of 4, and get learn a few dozen 3 ball tricks and patterns.

Getting to 5 requires significant dedication, but the reason most people don't do it is because they don't invest the time required.

Talent isn't a myth, but it's seriously over-rated, and usually just an excuse for not putting in the work. It doesn't need an excuse -- if you don't want to put in the work then don't.

But it's almost invariably not a lack of talent.




That is a very valid comment. Thank you for that perspective. I think you are right.


Hard agree. Talent is overrated.




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