Are you talented?

What makes you talented?

Typically, we associate talent only with celebrated excellence — with a strong emphasis on the word celebrated. – First Break All The Rules

It’s easy to look at some well-known programmer and say they’re talented. Maybe you’ve never seen their code though, and it’s crap.

I can think of a few ‘popular’ coders that fall into that category. They’re vocal, and many times philosophically right, but man their code is crap.

They get a pass on terrible code that others have to clean up because they’re celebrated for their voice.

You are talented

There is something you can do that I can’t. Something you do better, much better than I do.

You are talented. You can do amazing things. You are Gandalf.

I was at Starbucks recently, and the barista noticed that I was on my bike, so she asked how far I had ridden that day, about 20km.

This distance impressed her. She was amazed that I would commute around that far. My answer was to minimize it because I remember the days a few years ago when I would easily ride 100km or more in a day and 1200km in a month.

You do the same thing with your talents. You live them all the time, so you think little of them. You forget how rare it is to have the skills you have. You discount how awesome you are because you know someone that might maybe be a bit better in some far-flung scenarios.

You are talented! Don’t forget it!

Have an awesome day!

Curtis

Photo by: clement127