Very Talented People

[Outkaster]

What is it about insanely talented people? I know some musicians/singers that are on another level talent wise but often their lives are a mess. Never mind the substance abuse but their relationships are often abusive or they cant hold a job. I know there are always exception to this its something I have noticed as I get older. Its like they cant get out of their own way to be successful.

[DanL]

We just parted ways with a guy who was a musical genius. Plays every instrument better than most people play their primary. Fantastic ear. Zero social skills and some serious mental issues going on that probably require some kind of treatment but no one around him who he'd listen to will get him the help he needs.

[bennyray]

I have a couple of close friends like that and they don't really take being in a band serious must be how they are wired. Most of them can't hold a job must be in a serious project with a band. Life seems to be more complicated now as 25 years ago things were totally different and people were not as stressed as nowadays including the music scene.

[Outkaster]

Yes but the inherent dysfunction is so profound with these people. I understand mental illness but it seems to always be two steps up and three back with these people. It's kind of too bad.

[The Real MC]

Talent does not always equate to wisdom or good team skills.

 

It's not just musicians. You find people like that in any field. I work for an international corporation for my day job. My hiring manager had 30+ years with them and he complained that it was getting harder to find people with good work ethics. I know of talented PhDs who did not get hired there.

 

They've been around forever. When I was doing work co-op while in college, one of the co-ops was a student with perfect grades yet he was completely aloof in the workplace. And managers were frustrated because HR kept referring idiots like this one because they were using grades as a sole metric. Just because you are an expert at exams doesn't mean you can walk on water.

 

As for insane talent? Well, you're just jealous because the voices are talking to me...

[Joe Muscara]

I wonder if it's any different than other genii who are really great at what they do and pretty poor at most everything else.

 

 

http://media.tumblr.com/cc1921a21c46ba793b5529c61868fe0f/tumblr_inline_mrjni8VXTE1qz4rgp.jpg

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

Hey, my first vanity thread!

[Song80s]

What is it about insanely talented people? I know some musicians/singers that are on another level talent wise but often their lives are a mess. Never mind the substance abuse but their relationships are often abusive or they cant hold a job. I know there are always exception to this its something I have noticed as I get older. Its like they cant get out of their own way to be successful.

 

going to push back on you some, because I know you can handle it

 

There are numerous very talented people, that are well grounded.

 

How come you are not choosing them to work with ?

 

Of course, there are also talented people that are high maintenance.

Why try to depend on them or have unrealistic expectations of them ?

[Threadslayer]

I know of talented PhDs who did not get hired there.

Advanced degrees don't necessarily correlate with social skills and useful work product either.

[ProfD]

It's hard to be very talented and a social butterfly.

 

Maybe like senses, to be strong in one area weakens another.

 

Personally, I enjoy being an anti-social socialist with a modicum of talent.

[Rod S]

I know of talented PhDs who did not get hired there.

Advanced degrees don't necessarily correlate with social skills and useful work product either.

 

And a lot of other factors come into play, like handling well interviews, dealing with politics, and avoiding getting screwed over.

 

My favorite one that no one likes to admit is LUCK. I tell that to new hires and they think I'm being ridiculous. Most successful people worked their asses of BUT also had luck (myself included). A lot of times you can find people that followed very very similar steps and failed - sometimes miserably.

 

I amuse myself reading self accolades of people that were successful.

The survivorship bias just pours between their words.

[CEB]

I used to play Chess. I think the only normal GM I ever met was Vishy Anand. Most GMs I swear are batshit crazy. I used to play online with Alexei Shirov and James Plaskett and they seemed cool online.

[KeyMoe]

I agree with the above comment that luck plays a big part as well as being in the right place at the right time. In addition common sense plays a big role. I know some extremely intelligent people that have absolutely no common sense and or political skills. I just shake my head at times.

 

I have come to the conclusion that everyone is different and we need those differences to observe, learn and grow from them.

[TommyRude]

I can only speak for myself, but I am very talented, scary genius level stuff. And I'm super good looking, physically fit. I'm amazingly creative, I can sight read and play by ear, I sing incredibly well, very soulful, 5 octave range. Oh yes, almost forgot, I'm very rich, extremely lucky and I have a huge big dictionary. The cool thing is on top of all this I'm very friendly, easy to get along with and I'm very humble.

[Cliffk]

I can only speak for myself, but I am very talented, scary genius level stuff. And I'm super good looking, physically fit. I'm amazingly creative, I can sight read and play by ear, I sing incredibly well, very soulful, 5 octave range. Oh yes, almost forgot, I'm very rich, extremely lucky and I have a huge big dictionary. The cool thing is on top of all this I'm very friendly, easy to get along with and I'm very humble.

It's great that you're very friendly ...

More seriously, fascinating to note that these kinds of people - let's call 'em sociopaths - wouldn't even realise they weren't liked, or that their behaviour was actually the cause of this.

[SteveCoscia]

Saying insanely talented people are dysfunctional or whatever, is painting with a wide brush. I've known many true geniuses who are socially stable, fun and generous.

 

In 1984, when I started with Ensoniq, there was only a handful of people there (I was employee number 16). About half of the engineers (software/hardware), at that time, were some of the smartest and nicest folks I ever knew. These days, we get together every now and then, and they're still nice folks.

 

In the late 1980s, I hired a guy from Michigan to work as a customer service rep in my department. The guy had incredible music talent - perfect pitch, played numerous instruments, golden voice, funny, etc. etc. etc. But, he was also good at business discipline, user manual writing and administrative work. He eventually went off on his own as a musical performer/songwriter and is still doing quite well. He has traveled the world. His personality is still pleasant - he's a hoot. Very funny and creative.

 

Here is my opinion: The success skills are the skills we learned at home from mom and dad.

[Rod S]

I can handle people with poor social skills, but not people that can't respect commitments and deliver what is expected.

 

Worked with a guy that I considered him a mix of Dr. House and Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. Brilliant chemical engineer but no social skills, arrogant as hell, and clueless about the impact.

 

I was leading a project with a US team, and the week he came down, he managed to piss off 3 people from my team in less than 10 minutes. He pissed off the rest of the team and others by the time he left, including the people from the other side of the JV. I saved a least 2 people from having their careers potentially destroyed since he would burn people down to a crisp if he found the quality of their work subpar.

 

The company president once told me - "He's the type of guy you keep locked away in a cell with only a drawer to pass him food and he passes the work he's done."

 

Brilliant enough that I was put up with his shit and worked hard to shield the rest of the team and other partners from him. I still keep some of his work as 'standards' - that's how good he was. But man, was he difficult to work with.

[Rod S]

Here is my opinion: The success skills are the skills we learned at home from mom and dad.

 

I see both cases - a lot from the upbringing, but often people are wired wrong.

 

On the upbringing - Brazil has huge social inequality (nothing new here...). It's amazing how underprivileged kids need a lot of coaching on the 1st job. Sometimes it looks like putting someone in a boxing ring without telling them anything beforehand.

[Song80s]

I can only speak for myself, but I am very talented, scary genius level stuff. And I'm super good looking, physically fit. I'm amazingly creative, I can sight read and play by ear, I sing incredibly well, very soulful, 5 octave range. Oh yes, almost forgot, I'm very rich, extremely lucky and I have a huge big dictionary. The cool thing is on top of all this I'm very friendly, easy to get along with and I'm very humble.

 

But you are not in the league of your older brother- that rich dude with goofy hair, who is on Twitter every night

 

[Song80s]

[

More seriously, fascinating to note that these kinds of people - let's call 'em sociopaths - wouldn't even realise they weren't liked, or that their behaviour was actually the cause of this.

 

sociopaths can be loyal friends. They might surprise you and have good qualities

 

[Theo Verelst]

The problem with certain people, intelligent or not, is that they don't appear better once you get to know them. Some maybe because for one reason or another they've become a sociopath, clinically speaking, others possibly because they're organized with a common goal.

 

It's normal for intelligent people, as many musicians are to some extend, to feel some persons like to borrow their abilities, for which there are a number of remedies, for sure. Maybe the question about discipline versus intelligence isn't the same as the biblical story about the tax collector versus the pope or anything generally nonsensical as such subjects. It is the theory of some people which manage to get a higher education that preying one people is serving a purpose higher than the cost of the loss of morality. That of course is a far further stretching than goofy intelligent people, but of course there's this "the means to an end" principle that gets labeled intelligent by some.

 

I'm watching some Stanford lectures on Theoretical Physics, where I was reminded that trying to follow the character of some participants is a dire form of psychology much more than hard, exact physics.

 

For musicians, it's normal to besides intelligence, diligence and "knowing about life", having some form of organizational and interpersonal skills that are of essence in many situations, unlike general nerds who seem to be happy with making plans which are disciplined in ways most people would better not care about.

 

A cross between say a Savior person and an A. Einstein lookalike can well be a sloppy toilet cleaner!

 

T.

[Joe Muscara]

I worked for a guy who was a genius programmer but at times was a major a*hole. I could tell that he was a programmer nerd as a kid, and his social skills might have improved some since then, but still needed lots of work. How could I tell? Because I had been there and made some of the same kinds of changes in myself. His two (and then all three) sisters worked there for him, and they would get into screaming fights at times. It was really bad.

 

One of the things I observed about him is that he never had a real job. When I got out of college, I worked at GM as a salaried engineer and it was eye opening. After growing up with a dad who had mostly working class jobs, seeing how "the other side" operated changed me a lot for the better. This guy worked for McDonald's in high school, then for Apple when they blew up in the early 80s, and then started his own company. So he never had that kind of experience. It showed in how he and his sisters ran the place (I'm talking day-to-day, not the fights. They never did that with us, really).

 

My point is, anyone who is open to it can learn how to behave and still be a "genius." My old boss learned some things, but needed to learn others. But I put Steve Jobs first in my previous post for a reason...

[TommyS]

Im so insanely talented that Ive become a legend in my own room,,,

[AWkeys]

There are probably just as many high-functioning geniuses out there as there are troubled geniuses just as there are high-functioning brains with any level of intelligence versus troubled brains. I used to work with a lot of engineers from different sciences, and it was amazing to find how many humble geniuses there are out there. They quietly do their brilliant work, and go about their lives as simply as possible.

 

Dr. Bob Moog, for instance?

[MurMan]

What is it about insanely talented people? I know some musicians/singers that are on another level talent wise but often their lives are a mess. ...

There are lots of people with messy lives. My theory is that we examine the lives of those with talent more closely and expect their talent to extend to all other aspects of their lives.

[mate stubb]

The thing about engineers working in a meritocracy is - they all are smart, and it's usually easy to look around and see somebody who is smarter than you. Helps keep you humble.

[David Emm]

It is unfortunately the case that all too often in the U.S., if you say "I'm an artist," the response is generally not "Oh yeah, what kind?," but "That's nice, but what do you really do?" Decadence is defined as the decay of a society as evidenced by the quality of its arts. There seems to be a lot of that occurring, both in general social outlooks and the space-aged damage of misused digital files with wings. No, its not absolute- after all, WE're here- but if you do have some level of real gift, the dismissive, debased cultural atmosphere makes it harder to engage as fully as you might wish. All the more reason to embrace your instruments, come as prepared as possible, roll with setbacks and thank people regularly. Number One ain't always Number One. Instant karma's always comin' back and I don't wanna make that kind of history.

 

[ksoper]

One of my dearest friends is a guitar player who has been quite successful in Nashville as a session and live player. His credentials would impress just about anybody. He is, without question, the easiest person to get along with on the road. A truly nice guy and a musical genius. And yet he has absolutely no skills outside of music. None. Doesn't cook, can't do household maintenance (installing light switches, deadbolts, fixing leaky toilets, etc.), can't keep books. I've done a number of those things for him. He's never worked a job outside of music. Ever. Went from being home schooled to being a pro musician at 16. I pray that he never loses the ability to play. He'd be sunk.

 

 

[Song80s]

It is unfortunately the case that all too often in the U.S., if you say "I'm an artist," the response is generally not "Oh yeah, what kind?," but "That's nice, but what do you really do?" Decadence is defined as the decay of a society as evidenced by the quality of its arts. There seems to be a lot of that occurring,

 

good post.

 

Thought to expand on part- everyday folks or ' consumers' conflate the product of the artist with capitalistic achievement. As some kind of measurement.

 

As an artist and a business person , I do not agree.

Both can work independently .

 

You or I or the artist can realize artistic achievement and notoriety- without bunches of benjamins

[Outkaster]

Saying insanely talented people are dysfunctional or whatever, is painting with a wide brush. I've known many true geniuses who are socially stable, fun and generous.

 

In 1984, when I started with Ensoniq, there was only a handful of people there (I was employee number 16). About half of the engineers (software/hardware), at that time, were some of the smartest and nicest folks I ever knew. These days, we get together every now and then, and they're still nice folks.

 

In the late 1980s, I hired a guy from Michigan to work as a customer service rep in my department. The guy had incredible music talent - perfect pitch, played numerous instruments, golden voice, funny, etc. etc. etc. But, he was also good at business discipline, user manual writing and administrative work. He eventually went off on his own as a musical performer/songwriter and is still doing quite well. He has traveled the world. His personality is still pleasant - he's a hoot. Very funny and creative.

 

Here is my opinion: The success skills are the skills we learned at home from mom and dad.

 

I didnt mean to paint with that wide of a brush Steve but its something with musicians that I have scene over the years and its sad.