• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 09:59
CEST 15:59
KST 22:59
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence2Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups1WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia7Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues29LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time
Tourneys
WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 General Discussion Playing StarCraft as 2 people on the same network [ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence Pros React To: SoulKey's 5-Peat Challenge
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group C [ASL20] Ro16 Group B [IPSL] ISPL Season 1 Winter Qualis and Info! Is there English video for group selection for ASL
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Borderlands 3 Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1459 users

Always something.

Blogs > Omnishroud
Post a Reply
Omnishroud
Profile Blog Joined November 2013
1073 Posts
January 31 2014 07:50 GMT
#1
There is always something that someone, somewhere will excel at. However they might never know it, never experience it or even know that it exists. I believe that everyone in this world is amazing, they could be the next messiah in a random activity out of sheer talent if they only discovered it to begin with.

There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of activities in this world and so many things we go through life not knowing existed, trying them or bothering with.

Geniuses exist in each and every one of us, i am certain of this. The combination that forms a genius is 1) Raw talent 2) Love and dedication and 3) Discovery. If a person only discovers the right activity they have enough love and talent for, they have the potential to do amazing things.

The thing is, geniuses are a hard thing to come by because while a person could be the next Sinatra or Flash, they simply spend their lives doing completely different things and never discover their love or talent for it. You could find the activity, have all the talent in the world and never realise your potential because of a lack of love for the activity, you simply dont enjoy it and as such, never become a genius in its field despite your great ability to do so.

Always remember that something out there is waiting for you to discover it, everyone has the potential to do amazing things, they just never discover or love what those things are.


*
Omni = Capped (RIP TL Account) - LoL EUW: Capped92 - EU Bnet: Capped#1137 - Steam: Capped92
739
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Bearded Elder29903 Posts
January 31 2014 07:56 GMT
#2
Need to discover a device that will scan your brain in search of your talents. That'd be awesome.
WriterSalty oldboy that loves memes | One and only back-to-back Liquibet Winner
igay
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
Australia1178 Posts
January 31 2014 08:23 GMT
#3
iv'e become half decent a lot of things in my life but never truly been great at anything
MVP <3 MKP <3 DRG <3
Omnishroud
Profile Blog Joined November 2013
1073 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-01-31 08:34:31
January 31 2014 08:31 GMT
#4
On January 31 2014 17:23 igay wrote:
iv'e become half decent a lot of things in my life but never truly been great at anything


I think its safe to say your inner calling isnt with picking usernames.

On January 31 2014 16:56 739 wrote:
Need to discover a device that will scan your brain in search of your talents. That'd be awesome.


I honestly think such a device would either increase human output by upwards of infinity % or outright destroy us. It would have to be something that measured ones talent and love for every certain activity on the planet and pick the one with the best mix.
Omni = Capped (RIP TL Account) - LoL EUW: Capped92 - EU Bnet: Capped#1137 - Steam: Capped92
GERMasta
Profile Joined October 2010
Germany212 Posts
January 31 2014 09:20 GMT
#5
I'm not sure what to think of talents, i.e. what they are, whether they exist and if so, to what extent. It's one of those areas I'm still very much undecided on and would need to do more research. But it's clear that if we are born with a slightly better ability or stronger proclivity for something, then that something is going to be very general like visual-spatial, kinesthetic or rhythmic/harmonic activity. This is because nature precedes social practices. On the other hand, I find this talk of everyone being a special butterfly to be ideologically and economically convenient, so I remain sceptical by default.
jrkirby
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States1510 Posts
January 31 2014 09:23 GMT
#6
I took a probability/statistics course, and I think that you can interpret properties of probability in high dimensional vector spaces to explain why this happens in a mathematical sense.

One of the rules of probability dictates that if you have a high dimensional space, and you take a uniform random sample from it over a given volume, there is a high probability that the sample will be near the surface. The larger the number of dimensions, the greater this effect will be.

So imagine that people can be described by high dimensional vectors. Each dimension could be anything: One could be your skill at arithmetic, another could be your running speed, another could be your height. It's easy to imagine how you could come up with millions of these vectors.

However you can't just say that a person is a uniform sample from this vector space: it's pretty obvious that tons and tons of these vectors correlate with each other: For example, if someone has longer than average legs, they have a high probability of being taller than average. So what can you do now? You can do the Principle Component Analysis of the matrix that contains all people. This makes a new matrix where every vector is linearly independent. This matrix is made up of eigenvectors. You can use this matrix to translate from a an equal dimension vector space onto your vector space of people. Some of the dimensions in this altered space correspond to large differences in what kind of person you have, but most of them have very minor effects.

But now we have a new vector space, and we can take uniform random samples from it because the eigenvectors are linearly independent. and since there are still many vectors that have a large effect on what kind of person results, it is very similar to uniformly randomly sampling a high dimensional space. Remember, almost all vectors from high dimensional space are close to the surface. So what does this mean? Well, being near the surface is caused by one thing: having one or more dimensions that are close to the maximum.

So all people are extremely likely have some attribute that is more extreme than the vast majority of other people. In layman's terms: Everybody's good at something. The inverse is also true, for the same reasons: Everybody is bad at something.

This view of the world has another implication. If you take two randomly sampled vectors from a high dimensional vector space, the have a high probability of being very far away from each other. In other words: everybody is very different from each other. And also they're extremely likely to have some dimension that is very close in both vectors. So, everybody has something in common.

If you want a visual sort of explanation, look up Eigenfaces. Computer Scientists use very similar mathematics and reasoning to be able to do facial recognition.

I found it cool that you can use advanced mathematics to explain why the stuff they teach you in kindergarten is true.
hp.Shell
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States2527 Posts
January 31 2014 10:10 GMT
#7
Re: Talents, it seems related to the idea of genetic learning. If you have read or heard about the study done on rats, I don't remember exactly how it went, but it was perhaps something like a lever causing a shock, and their children knew not to push the lever, presumably because this was a learned danger through genetic learning. You could argue that, for example, direct ancestors' experiences of pleasure and avoiding danger influence what is learned genetically, and therefore what "talents" the offspring have.

For example, if your dad was playing the guitar when he met your mom, it could be likely that you have a talent for playing the guitar, if the experience was meaningful enough to have an impact on your genetics.

I'm very interested in learning about new fields. Unfortunately, I feel I already know my talent, and perhaps also my genius is correlated with that area, but I have a fear of commitment. It's tough, man. I gotta learn to sacrifice, I guess. Once I learn that, maybe I'll be able to sacrifice everything in the name of my talent. But maybe I won't! Isn't that something to be curious of? To know what to do, to assume your potential is incredibly high if not outright unparalleled, but being afraid that your drive isn't enough to take you there?

I have this time plan of my future. Soon, my active workload will be cut down to roughly 22 hours a week. If I assume roughly 10 hours of social activity, I calculate about 70 hours remain for improvement and recreation. So, there's a possibility that I could use all 70 hours per week to improve in the area of my talent and genius.

The question is, how long will it take me to burn out? What can I do to prevent that? Should I schedule time specifically for letting go of the improvement process, or use it all in the name of my ancestors and the living? I've thought of maybe watching a 10-30 minute series of motivational videos to stay on track, but maybe what I really need is novelty in my learning, to keep things fresh and interesting.

How do you continue when it is known that thoughts arise which will not be in line with your goals?

Big commitments.
Please PM me with any songs you like that you think I haven't heard before!
GERMasta
Profile Joined October 2010
Germany212 Posts
January 31 2014 13:16 GMT
#8
@hp.Shell: That sounds awfully a lot like Lamarckism. I can see how it might lead to proclivities, but I'm very sceptical that it can have a direct effect on ability.

@jrkirby: Can you explain to me again why being near the surface is caused by having one more dimensions that are close to the maximum?
Djzapz
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Canada10681 Posts
January 31 2014 13:55 GMT
#9
I think OP is wrong. It's a nice idea, it's a "feel good" idea. But we're not all special. Not *all* of us have some extraordinary talent at something. And the idea that it might be hidden forever is just a cop-out, a cheesy way to assert something without providing any evidence. People are only willing to accept the idea because it might give them hope.

I would say that everybody has some form of potential, which varies. Certain personalities as well as external circumstances may lead to this potential being used, or not. So yes there are great talents hidden out there in the world. And there are probably things I could be decent at that I don't currently do. That doesn't mean I necessarily "excel" at anything, let alone that I could get world-class at it.
"My incompetence with power tools had been increasing exponentially over the course of 20 years spent inhaling experimental oven cleaners"
jrkirby
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States1510 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-01-31 20:20:31
January 31 2014 20:17 GMT
#10
On January 31 2014 22:16 GERMasta wrote:
@hp.Shell: That sounds awfully a lot like Lamarckism. I can see how it might lead to proclivities, but I'm very sceptical that it can have a direct effect on ability.

@jrkirby: Can you explain to me again why being near the surface is caused by having one more dimensions that are close to the maximum?


It's pretty intuitive if you think about it graphically.

Look at a 2D space:
(-1,1)...................(1,1)
.............y.............
.............^.............
.............|.............
.............|.............
<-----------|------------>x
.............|.............
.............|.............
.............|.............
.............v.............
(-1,-1)...................(1,-1)

if any of the dimensions are near -1 or 1, the minimum or maximum, then that vector is near the edge of our bounding box that goes from (-1,-1) to (1,1).
hp.Shell
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States2527 Posts
January 31 2014 21:31 GMT
#11
Ah, the graph helped me understand. I forgot about the magnitudes of vectors and I was just visualizing a field of compasses (of all the same magnitude) so it was hard to understand the first time around.

I agree with your assessment, jrkirby. There are just so many potential vectors that one of them has to have great magnitude and pointing in the best direction.

Now we get into social constructs. If I happened to have my "best vector" as a world-class ballet dancer, it is unlikely that I would ever know that. I think our interests betray our talents, or at least our capability to stick with something through many tumultuous hours. If your heart/subconscious is telling you it wants to do something, there's a great chance that, were you to choose it as a focus, you would break through the effort and time barriers and become something great.
Please PM me with any songs you like that you think I haven't heard before!
hp.Shell
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States2527 Posts
January 31 2014 21:35 GMT
#12
On January 31 2014 22:16 GERMasta wrote:
@hp.Shell: That sounds awfully a lot like Lamarckism. I can see how it might lead to proclivities, but I'm very sceptical that it can have a direct effect on ability.

It does sound like Lamarckism, as it deals with epigenetics. I'm not sure you can argue that epigenetics have direct measurable effects on things like talent, but if it interests you more because of your epigenetic background, you may pay more attention to the activity and in so doing produce a better result than someone who did not pay as much attention due to their relative epigenetic disinterest.
Please PM me with any songs you like that you think I haven't heard before!
tili
Profile Joined July 2012
United States1332 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-02-01 00:42:20
February 01 2014 00:40 GMT
#13
Hm, I generally agree, but think you are overstating the effects of genes on specialization.

People have altitudes for general categories of tasks. No one is born with the talents to be a zebra expert, but maybe with an aptitude for connecting with non-human beings. Or an aptitude for kinetic manipulation and detail, which could be hundreds of different roles.

Edit: IMHO, the best way to harness this is through universal education that allows children to self select avenues of excellence beyond the common curriculum.
Titusmaster6
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
United States5937 Posts
February 01 2014 05:37 GMT
#14
On January 31 2014 22:55 Djzapz wrote:
I think OP is wrong. It's a nice idea, it's a "feel good" idea. But we're not all special. Not *all* of us have some extraordinary talent at something. And the idea that it might be hidden forever is just a cop-out, a cheesy way to assert something without providing any evidence. People are only willing to accept the idea because it might give them hope.

I would say that everybody has some form of potential, which varies. Certain personalities as well as external circumstances may lead to this potential being used, or not. So yes there are great talents hidden out there in the world. And there are probably things I could be decent at that I don't currently do. That doesn't mean I necessarily "excel" at anything, let alone that I could get world-class at it.


Agree completely. I think our intelligence, physical attributes, personalities, and other "measurable" qualities each have a spectrum, kind of like the sliders during character creation/customization of an RPG game. There are tons of variation between individuals, but only a few are born with the proper things "maxed out," aka genius level.
Shorts down shorts up, BOOM, just like that.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Wardi Open
11:00
Mondays #51
WardiTV728
Harstem329
OGKoka 300
Rex182
CranKy Ducklings153
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Harstem 329
OGKoka 300
Rex 182
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 8502
Rain 3933
Sea 2248
EffOrt 866
actioN 548
BeSt 487
firebathero 435
Stork 326
Hyun 215
Soulkey 183
[ Show more ]
Hyuk 167
Zeus 157
Sharp 131
Shuttle 116
ggaemo 105
Rush 96
hero 76
Mind 69
Mong 63
JYJ58
Aegong 28
Movie 23
yabsab 16
soO 16
zelot 15
Sacsri 15
Terrorterran 12
sSak 12
SilentControl 10
Noble 10
Shine 9
Bale 7
Hm[arnc] 5
Dota 2
singsing3835
Dendi1354
Fuzer 303
LuMiX0
Counter-Strike
byalli320
oskar120
edward79
markeloff73
flusha52
Super Smash Bros
Westballz29
Other Games
gofns15154
tarik_tv14070
B2W.Neo900
olofmeister872
hiko490
crisheroes394
Lowko276
XaKoH 247
Liquid`VortiX71
QueenE60
Mew2King46
Happy36
NeuroSwarm31
Organizations
StarCraft 2
IntoTheiNu 18
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• Ler62
League of Legends
• Nemesis2002
• Jankos875
Other Games
• Shiphtur178
Upcoming Events
Monday Night Weeklies
2h 2m
OSC
10h 2m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
20h 2m
Afreeca Starleague
20h 2m
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
PiGosaur Monday
1d 10h
LiuLi Cup
1d 21h
RSL Revival
2 days
Maru vs Reynor
Cure vs TriGGeR
The PondCast
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
4 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
4 days
[BSL 2025] Weekly
5 days
BSL Team Wars
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
Online Event
6 days
Wardi Open
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 20 Team Wars
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.