reflection 7-9

Talent is overrated, to say the least it is overrated and so is practicing problems until you just want to throw a computer across the room at four in the morning. Why are we as a species so engulfed by "perfect" I mean, what is the point? In the book many interesting topics are discussed and models supplied(sports,mental,and chess) and even the drop of the name of Ben Franklin graced the black and white pages. It is no surprise that Ben is listed as a great man who indefinably altered the history of these great states, hell I bet he would say that perfect was never reached in his voyage. The ultimate gift that he and other great men gave was the inability to never quit, although I don't think calculus was in his study lessons. The obvious lessons the book lays out are good for people to think about and perhaps push them into the next portion of their lives, for me it just seems redundant. For most of us growing up our parents have taught us to "never quit" and through this motto these models are achieved without ever knowing there are such terms defining them. Sports model= practice, chess model = practice, and mental model well it equals practice. Things that seem so easily defined by the motto never give up or keep trying are displayed to us from our childhood and easily accepted or declined throughout our adult life. Why do we choose to quit? well I feel as though its like a person who is 100 lbs trying to play for major football teams. This particular person may be the fastest runner in the world but if he took one hit by a 300 lb linebacker, well he just might die! This is not particularly lack of practice, just a predisposition. That person however encouraged becomes discouraged because no matter how much he tries he cannot change genetics. Does this take on a form of talent? I don't think so. The fact relating to calculus in this whole rant is that though people practice, the way of learning is much different depending upon your predisposition. Take me for example, I am what some would call a conceptual learner, I am not stupid but feel that way in many instances when it comes to learning new math based concepts. I have always been more successful if I could visualize what was actually going on and if I can get that I can average out what the answer would be close too. This sort of conceptualization does not always give me the exact answer but most of the time I am not too far off.  This does not effect my ability to be creative and gives me some basics on economical values as listed in the book. I guess the coined term Practice makes perfect is overused and we can just simply narrow it down to practice, and do the best you can.