Can a skill be a talent? Can a talent be a skill?
Take Norm Abrams, for example. Here’s a guy who certainly knows his carpentry. He can build just about anything. He knows his tools. He knows his job inside and out.
Would you consider him talented? He’s certainly skillful.
What is the basic difference?
Talent refers to a natural ability or sense for something, while skill is a proficiency at something that usually comes from much study, practice and experience. Thus, one can have talent in an area in which one is unskilled, and one can, of course be talented and skilled. I’m not sure skill implies talent, though; I’m quite skilled at smoking cigarettes, but I’d have a hard time regarding that as showing a talent.
Just one little note about Norm.
I like Norm, I really do, but when he first tried to make the transition from carpenter to cabinetmaker, he failed.
Bear in mind, this was many years ago. He has since learned how to build cabinets properly, but at first he built them in a manner that made me chuckle. (or perhaps; cringe)
I haven’t watched television in years, but when last I saw him, he appeared reasonably competent.
He learned cabinetmaking.
He is a skilled artisan, but he was building cabinets like a carpenter when he first began. (A super duper no-no IMO)
People often suggest to me that I’m talented. It bugs me a bit, because they ignore the long, hard hours I put into developing my skill. It’s as if they think I can do something they can’t.
I view it differently.
I was willing to train long and hard, and earned my skill. If someone else cannot do <insert task here>, it’s because they didn’t do the hard work of learning the skill. It isn’t because they were denied some birthright.
The “talent” card is often a cop out for lazy workmen.
I like Norm too. Years of practice have made him very skilled. I’d say he has a natural talent to build things…not everyone can create something useful or beautiful from a piece of timber. I’m not too sure if he’d think it was natural talent or skill, but either way, he is very good at what he does. I think Norm could probably build just about anything…pity the equipment in his workshop is out of reach for us mere mortals.
The phrase I like to use (steal, actually) is “Skills are the flowers you get when you water your talent bush.” Watering meaning practicing & studying, but you get the idea.
I’ve been re-reading a book called Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. There’s a line in it that I really like, and it might be applicable here: “Craft is the visible edge of art.” That more or less sums it up for me.