Talent Vs Hard Work | The Polgar Experiment
People have asked the question, “Are geniuses born or made?” since eternity. In other words, Talent Vs Hard Work – What results in success ? So, Are you curious too ? Read this article delight to know about “The Polgar Experiment” that gives answer to your query right away !
The Polgar Experiment : Talent Vs Hard Work
Laszlo Polgar was a researcher from Hungary who studied intelligence and had a fascination towards understanding geniuses. He had studied well over 400 prodigies and analyzed the common patterns.
Somewhere in the 1960s, Laszlo Polgar presented a theory that great performers are made and not born. He believed that he could raise a genius himself. When he tried to present his intentions, the local government asked him to see a psychiatrist. But Laszlo remained undeterred, stood by his opinion and made it his lifetime goal to confirm his theory.
In 1965, he started approaching women, explaining his intent. A Ukranian lady named Klara found his concept intriguing and agreed to be a part of the experiment. Soon after, in 1969, Klara Polgar gave birth to a child whom the couple named Susan Polgar.
The first daughter, Susan Polgar
The experiment began in 1970 where Laszlo Polgar decided to homeschool Susan and teach her chess. The reason for choosing Chess was because it had a clear objective and ranking. In other fields like writing or acting, people can debate if a person is truly world-class or not. However, the chess ranking system determines if a person is the best player in the world or not.
Laszlo himself was a mediocre chess player at best, but he left no stone unturned to help his daughter develop expertise in the game. Susan was hooked by the game and practiced intensively every day.By 1984, she had become the top-ranked female chess player in the world at a tender age of 15. She was the first woman to qualify for the Men’s World Championship in 1986. She went on to achieve the coveted title of a grandmaster in 1991 and became the first woman in history to win the Chess triple crown.
The second daughter, Sofia Polgar
Now, you might assume that Susan was born as a genius due to some stroke of luck. But it was not only the first daughter of Laszlo and Klara Polgar who dominated chess. Their second daughter, Sofia Polgár, went on to become a top ten female chess player in the world, and she also beat several other male grandmasters during her career.
The third daughter, Judit Polgar
Finally came Judit Polgar, born in 1976, who achieved the highest results among the three Polgar sisters. Judit was the fastest to achieve the title of a grandmaster, men and women included, at the age of 15 years and 4 months, a record earlier held by the well known Bobby Fischer. Judit has also defeated various other world champions such as Vladimir Kramnik, Vishwanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov and many more.
Laszlo Polgar proved his theory he made over 50 years ago that great performers are made, not born. If only one of his daughters became successful, you could argue that she was born a prodigy. But when all three Polgar sisters reached a world-class status, all factors such as luck and coincidence are out of the window. His effort is called as one of the most amazing experiments in the history of human education.
Read more about the experiment here : https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/articles/200507/the-grandmaster-experiment
Conclusion : Talent Vs Hard Work
In Laszlo Polgar‘s opinion hard work is more important than talent ever will be. Hard work is the practice and preparation you use to hone and enhance your natural skills and abilities. So, hard work is the thing that gets to the finish line ahead of others. “Talent”” is just a wildcard that can be used as an edge to succeed, it is nothing without hard work. The 10,000 hour rule is a theory in which it takes someone approximately 10,000 hours of deliberated practice and active participation to become an expert or rather say “Talented” in a given field, profession, activity, hobby or skill. Anyone, no matter how bad, or good you are when you first start at something, can become great at it by deliberately practicing this skill or craft. Be it, painting, lettering, design, programming, woodwork, speaking in public, or anything else in the creative field.
If you ever come across people who achieve results seemingly due to aptitude than hard work, there’s a good chance that they have invested tons of hard work. It’s natural to jump to a conclusion that people achieve success without much work, because you don’t see the hard work, only their success. Yet, closer examination usually reveals otherwise.
Final Takeaways
The idea of talent or hard work being the more important quality for a person to have has been debated for years. Often times, people let go of their dreams because they claim they do not have the “talent.” But, rather than see talent as something innate in certain people, recognize that talent is innate in you too. You just need to put in the hours to bring this “talent” out of you.
Read also : Deep Work | How To Be More Focused ( https://thebrightdelights.com/deep-work-how-to-be-more-focused/ )