Mozart's father was a skilled professional musician and scholars believe it was in fact Papa who wrote most of those compositions attributed to little Amadeus. Yes, Mozart himself wrote the later stuff, and some of it is beautiful.
neural pathways are developed through use.
This is true, and is why I can't even hear some sounds in the Mandarin language. Or maybe Chinese people are innately better at hearing Mandarin? Hmmm.
It seems like this thread is an argument about semantics.
1) Some people use the word "talented" to mean someone is quite good at something. (aka "Rodin was a talented sculptor.")
2) Others use the word to imply that the person was born with a gift and didn't need to exert as much effort as others to be good at something. (aka "He's not a hard worker, he's just really talented.")
3) Sometimes the word "talent" is used to imply that someone is a little bit good at something, but an "expert" in that area of skill determines that particular person has a better chance at becoming awesome at it than most people.
The problem with the first couple of uses of the word is that it intentionally or unintentionally ignores the hard work aspect of becoming good at something complicated. People will sometime use "I just wasn't talented" as a reason they gave up trying to learn something. Case in point:
random lady at church:"Wow! You are so talented! I wish I could play piano like you, but I just don't have any talent for it."
my Mom: "Thank you." (in her mind: talent has nothing to do with it you twit; I'm good because I practiced so much.)
The problem with the third definition is the massive bias issue that was brought up in
Outliers. Coaches (often coaches who don't know very much) are directly responsible for this becoming a snowball effect. Sometimes it's that they inadvertently select the older children, and sometimes it's something else entirely. For example, Bertha signs up for the basketball team and she's better than average for at her age at throwing, catching, dribbling, and shooting. She has been playing in the yard with her older brothers. But she is a little pudgy and wears glasses, and the guy coaching her 10 year old team doesn't like how she looks. Heck, he doesn't even like her name. So, even though none of the girls on the team have much in the way of skills, he never plays Bertha in the games. He tells her it's because she's "too slow" and often has her in a passive role during practice while he is drilling his "top 5" girls. When they run suicides, she beats several or her teammates every time, but that doesn't change the coach's mind. Within a year or two, the other girls on the team are a little bit better because they have more experience and a more positive mental outlook. Bertha really likes basketball, but eventually she believes that she just has no talent and moves onto other activity where she is more encouraged.
All this is to say that I do believe in such a thing as talent in some sense, but most of us are not at all qualified to be the judge of it.