# If you were more talented/ambitious... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 24, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825 "2013-06-24T21:25:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/1 "2013-06-24T21:25:41Z")
…what famous person would your career resemble? That is, if you take the tastes and interests and tendencies you have, and add to them the drive/talent/hard work/ambition/luck/whatever necessary to make it to the top of some field whose practitioners achieve some level of fame, what real person who is a success in that field do you believe your work would resemble? For me, it’s fantasy author **Brandon Sanderson**. His strength as a writer (imho) is thinking of interesting premises for worlds, and for the plots in those worlds. His prose is perfectly readable, but not in any way literarily fancy. The thing he does better than just about anyone else is make sure that he thinks a LOT about all the implications of the rules he’s created. You can particularly see this in the final book of A Wheel of Time which he wrote after Robert Jordan’s death. (spoilers follow). WoT magic featured something called “gateways” which were doors in space that opened up allowing you to travel from one place to another just by walking through them. It was specifically mentioned that their edges were magically super-sharp and they were very dangerous. Robert Jordan left it at that. But there are all sorts of obvious questions… can you use them as weapons? Can you make really tiny ones that basically work as x-acto knives while making tools? Can you make a horizontal one way up in the air and look down through it for surveillance purposes? Etc. Etc. I absolutely LOVE it when I think a fantasy author has really thought through that kind of thing, which is rarely done, and which (were I for some reason a published fantasy author) I would totally do. Also, he loves playing Magic: The Gathering. On the other hand, he’s a Mormon, which I am most definitely not… What about you all? (This could arguably go in Cafe Society, but I don’t intend responses to be restricted to artists of various sorts. Politicians or Athletes or whoever are fair game.) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/2 "2013-06-24T21:31:59Z")
Michael Jackson. (The beer aficionado, not the dead pedophile) ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/3 "2013-06-24T22:20:38Z")
Do they have to be still living? And do we pick only one? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/4 "2013-06-24T22:40:45Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > Do they have to be still living? And do we pick only one? Do whatever you want, this is just for fun. Although some commentary is more interesting than just a list of names. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/5 "2013-06-24T22:58:54Z")
If I had played my cards right from day one, I think I would have had a chance at being an astronaut. But my dream was to walk on the moon, not be in LEO. But maybe LEO might have been enough. Then again, the effort you have to expend to have a chance is pretty intense…so if you do it and fail it kinda sucks. But with my luck some old fart in the future that is MY age will be on the moon for some reason and I’ll be really pissed with myself then. The whole thing is bad enough I have to avoid most astronaut stories these days. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/6 "2013-06-24T23:05:41Z")
Interesting question. I’ll go with\*\* Bernie Taupin\*\*. I can’t write a lick of music, but I truly believe I could spit out lyrics with the best of them if I had a few missing key components (such as ambition/the drive to succeed, the right partner, a solid work ethic, and a ton of luck). mmm ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/7 "2013-06-24T23:17:24Z")
John Coltrane. I loved band in high school, but didn’t take sax as seriously as I could have. If I’d applied myself, I could have taken much better advantage of my natural musical ability. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/8 "2013-06-25T01:03:03Z")
If I was more talented and ambitious, I would have liked to have been _Robert Louis Stevenson_. I was read his “[Child’s Garden of Verses](http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/stevenson/to_any_reader.html)” before bed when I was 3 or 4 and I still live his poem, ‘To Any Reader’. If anything that I’ve written ever came close, I would have been quite happy. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/9 "2013-06-25T01:26:28Z")
Interesting that this question should come up now. A few days ago I found this TED talk: [http://www.ted.com/talks/martin\_villeneuve\_how\_i\_made\_an\_impossible\_film.html](http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_villeneuve_how_i_made_an_impossible_film.html) “How I made an Impossible Film” by Martin Villeneuve. As I posted at the time: > [@](#): > > What a jaw-dropping talk. This guy is what I might have ended up like, if I’d turned a different direction and gone to art school instead of architecture school after high school. > > BUT, this is not about the past; it’s about the future. It’s not too late now. Various people have said to me over the past few weeks, to dream big and put it out there. This talk may just have been the final straw to push me over the edge into DOING STUFF. Desperation and hunger are pushing me from behind; things like this are pulling me from in front. > > * * * > > Une présentation incroyable! Peut-être j’aurais deveni comme cet homme, si j’avais décidé faire un autre route et j’avais appris l’art au lieu de l’architecture. > > MAIS, cette affaire n’est pas au sujet du passé; il est au sujet de l’avenir. Pas trop tard. Des personnes m’ont dit, que je pourrais faire des grands rêves et les mettrais dans le monde. Cette présentation peut-être m’a bougé pour FAIRE DES AFFAIRES. La désespération et le faim me bougent de l’arrière; des affaires comme celle-ci me tiennent de l’avant. > > * * * > > Nekredeblas! Tiu ĉi ulo aspektas kiel mi, si mi farus la decidon malsame dum kiam mi estis en lernejo. > > SED, tiu ĉi ne temas pri la pasinteco; ĝi temas pri la nuno. Eĉ nun sufiĉas tempo. Personoj apartaj diris al mi, ke mi devas revi grande kaj meti la revojn en la mondon. Tiu ĉi parolado eble finfine min ŝovas al FARI AFEROJN. Malespero kaj malsato min ŝovas de le malantaŭo; aferoj similaj al tiuj ĉi min puŝas de la antaŭo. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/10 "2013-06-25T01:35:36Z")
I dunno. I still haven’t figured out what I want to do when I grow up. I guess that would either make me a waiter or an actor. So, I’ll say Kathy Bates. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/11 "2013-06-25T03:40:20Z")
Any day now, someone’s going to refer to my art, not as “oh, look, cute doodles with captions”, but as _ **"Thurberesque".** _ ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/12 "2013-06-25T08:02:10Z")
I’ve occasionally thought my writing style was a bit like that of David Foster Wallace; somewhat rambling and digressive. Should anyone else make the comparison, I’d be highly flattered to even approach his talent. I don’t wish to go down the exact same road he did, though. If I’d gone into music, I’d have been thrilled to have the a fraction of the career of Mark Knopfler. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/13 "2013-06-25T08:47:09Z")
My favorite painter, [Gustav Klimt](https://www.google.com/search?q=gustav+klimt&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=np&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=UljJUfKLBeq5ygGawoBw&biw=1204&bih=1149&sei=WVjJUdT-NKemygGr6oDQCQ). I have always loved his work, but seeing much of it “live” in Vienna, just blew me away. He’s one of the few artists whose work I love more than my own. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/14 "2013-06-25T09:06:51Z")
If I was more everything I’d like to be a centrifical spin-off of: Tennessee Williams/Oscar Wilde Adele/Cee Lo Green Andrew Wythe/the guy who drew Calvin & Hobbs I _want_ to be serious but I just can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/15 "2013-06-25T09:37:39Z")
Neil Gaiman. SF/Fantasy/Horror comics, prose, TV and film, full of obscure literary and mythological references (but not with the pretension of Alan Moore or the insanity of Grant Morrison) and a slightly goth tone. Definitely what I’d do if I could. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/16 "2013-06-25T11:52:50Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Neil Gaiman. > > SF/Fantasy/Horror comics, prose, TV and film, full of obscure literary and mythological references (but not with the pretension of Alan Moore or the insanity of Grant Morrison) and a slightly goth tone. > > Definitely what I’d do if I could. Dammit! You took mine. 😃 I mess around with some short stories purely for my own amusement. Outside of some composition and basic writing courses in college, I’ve never done anything to pursue it, but if I could rewind, I think I would. I admire his story telling, his incredibly creative mind and his sense of just having a blast doing what he does. Plus, he’s a cat guy. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/17 "2013-06-25T12:06:01Z")
(Wow, Neil’s gone already…) Terry Pratchett. My daughter has pointed out that my sense of humor and his are practically the same. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/18 "2013-06-25T12:32:47Z")
Isaac Asimov, only with more travelling and less sideburns. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/19 "2013-06-25T12:41:54Z")
[William Foster.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_Down) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825/20 "2013-06-25T12:49:48Z")
I would have been doing a Marie Curie, although with a focus on theoretical chemistry (which counts among its advantages with that of not needing lead gloves). What I wanted to work on if I’d finished my PhD and gone on to academic research was “full glass” simulations of anabolic pathways of medications (that is, simulating how a medication interacts with different receptors, what it degrades into, and how do the products of that degradation interact with different receptors); the study of medications’ mechanisms was so much in its infancy that there was pretty much nothing to use as a check, but I think I would have been able to find me some teams of biochemists and pharmacists interested in playing “your tubes, my computer”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-more-talented-ambitious/661825.md?page=2)