Does wasting your talent make you a jerk?

I think it does make you a jerk if you don't realize some of, if not all of that potential.

So, I guess I'm sort of a jerk, since I'm not published yet.

I used to worry about wasting my writing talent, until I came to the recognition that I didn't have any to waste. I'm much more serene now.

caw

I don't think it makes you a jerk, but it certainly looks like you would be squandering a gift. Like living in a beach house in Hawaii and never going for a swim. What a waste. And to others who might wish they had that gift, it could appear tragic.

Wasting potential doesn't bother me. If you have the potential to be a great pianist, but you don't like playing the piano - well, you're not going to be an inspiration to anybody.

What bothers me is wasted opportunity. The kid who gets offered a free ride to college and doesn't take it. Someone who has a chance to do something wonderful and shrugs it aside.

This is absolutely weird to me that you've brought this up, because it is something that has been absolutely captivating my thoughts for the last two days!

I won't say what, but an event stunned me into realising the power and significance of everything that we write, or speak. Almost an epiphany or paradigm shift.

And I believe that, yes, we have been given a gift that is to be used. And to go further, whether we write as pure entertainment or on more serious themes, we all have incredible power to choose what it is that we wish to impart to others. And we don't have to be Nobel Prize-winning authors to do it.

Without sounding too dramatic about it, something has been niggling at my conscience to stop and think about why I am writing, my motives and what it is that I really want to write for some time. A personal thing.

Here's something to think about. Everyone on here would die to be a successful, recognised writer. For many of us, it may not happen. But let's just say it did. Somehow it happened. And one day you had to look back at what you've become recognised for. What influence would you have wanted to have? And I don't think that that thought is irrelevant to any genres. Even if your content is pure entertainment... we still convey our own underlying selves I think. Our beliefs, character, spirit if you like.

It is like the spoken word. Our writing always has power, whether modest or very significant. Every single one of us on here is saying something every time we even post. Sometimes fun. Sometimes about serious issues, or in response to others needs. It must be significant, or what the hell are we bothering doing it for?

Ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil, I've been brilliant at art. People have always told me to take up something that involves art in some way, illustrations for books etc. But drawing and painting doesn't actually interest me one little bit; words and writing do, they always have done.

Have I wasted my talent with not doing art? Probably, but I'd rather so something that interests me and not do something just because I can.


Elodie

MelodyO said:

If your writing could enhance lives (even if it's just getting people away from their problems for a few hours), but you don't write because of fear or laziness or what have you, what are the moral implications of that?

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It's okay to choose what you will do with your life.

Dale

What about people who might have an inborn talent, be it writing or mathematical ability or anything else, who never have a chance to develop or use it due to their birth circumstances? For example, if you're born in a poor village during drought time in Africa, you're not going to get much time to discover and develop your skills because it will take all your energy to simply avoid starvation.

I'm going on the assumption that talents are equally distributed among populations. I imagine that many potentially great novels, cures for disease, and physics theories have expired along with people who didn't have the luxury of making a choice about whether or not to use their talents.

MelodyO said:

... do you have an obligation to yourself and the world to fulfill that potential?

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No.

I especially agree with the last part of your post, Meow.

Who is to judge what is wasting talent, anyway? That's such a subjective thing, and it implies a responsibility that doesn't necessarily exist. Hiding your light under a bushel, right?

Plus, I think it also encourages a bit of egotism that can veer towards the unhealthy if you aren't careful.

Am I making any sense whatsoever?

Elodie-Caroline said:

Ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil, I've been brilliant at art. People have always told me to take up something that involves art in some way, illustrations for books etc. But drawing and painting doesn't actually interest me one little bit; words and writing do, they always have done.

Have I wasted my talent with not doing art? Probably, but I'd rather so something that interests me and not do something just because I can.


Elodie

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I think this example is the crux of the issue. Elodie is a brilliant artist, but for whatever reason, she doesn't enjoy drawing. Is that a waste of her talent? Sure, but is it fair to her to say she should devote her life to doing something she doesn't enjoy, simply because she happens to possess the talent for it? Not in the least. What any artist does with his or her talent is their business, and only their business. No one can say to me, "Say, Trish, you sure can write a smexy romance story. What's this, you're not published yet? What's wrong with you? It's terrible that you're not sharing your rare gift with the romance-reading world! Shame on you!" If someone tried to tell me such a thing, or its more realistic equivalent tongue) they would find out very quickly, and very unpleasantly, what happens when you poke my secret inner bitch with a stick.

I've been told at least a dozen times how I'm wasting my intellect by going into music (and TEACHING music, no less!)

I can't try to fulfill what everyone else thinks my obligations are. Yeah, I could be a fantastic lawyer or doctor or whatever, but I want to be a teacher.

You have to follow your heart and (if you're religious) what God wants you to do, regardless of what else you might be able to do. To be a human is to have to make choices. You can't do everything.

Actually, thinking about my own little burble up there somewhere... I was slightly off topic in that I do agree that it is everyone's right and often necessity not to pursue whatever. Sometimes we can be plain tired.

I was thinking more.. if you do choose to write, we can influence and choose how to do so.

In fact, very recently I was reading an article, and I've seen other similar ones, by a published writer who later deeply regretted some of what they'd earlier written. On moral grounds, and on the practical one that it badly bit them in the ass later.

Okay, you know, it's not like someone climbed mount everest bare feet to give you that talent. You just have it. a random combinations of chromosomes that would be different if your parents had done it 30 seconds earlier or later. So no I dont think you have a "duty" to realize your talent or to use it. You only have a duty to yourself to do what you love. I have a "talent" for accounting. If i were forced to utilize that talent I would poke my eyes out. Not that there's anythign wrong with accounting, i get a great thrill making numbers work like their supposed to, but it's not what I want to do.

Telling people they shouldnt waste their talent is getting close to the old Soviet method of creating gymnasts and doctors and everything. From an early age a child's aptitude was tested and that child was then forced to do what the aptitude showed. Never mind what the child actually wanted to do. It was forced to do what the state said. Do we really want to go there? There are plenty of people who do a great job without ever having "talent". Do we tell them to stop doing their job?

WHen you get down to it, we're just writers. Life goes on whether we write or not. Hard to believe, but there you go. If you don't inspire someone, another thing will. Geez, am I a cynic or what?

I think a lot of people have talent. And a lot of people have something to say. So the issue is whether you can get yourself to sit down and say it, and perhaps that's part of the talent. I'm starting to sound like a fortune cookie, but you know what I mean.

I think that if you have talent, it's a crime to waste it. At least, try to do something with it.

maybe talent is only a gift if you can access it and bring it forth into the world. Otherwise, it would be perpetually locked up inside you and the frustration of that would be more of a curse than anything.
So a jerk, no. But perhaps you would be a very sad and unfortunate individual if you could not access & share your talent.

If you want to do it and you're not (and you don't have legitimate reasons, reasons that you yourself believe to be acceptable), then you're cheating yourself. You're being a jerk to yourself, not other people.

MelodyO said:

if you want and need to be a writer, are you letting yourself/others down if you squander your skills to go play Zuma/

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Is there actually anything wrong with that? The more I play it the more I think that maybe my skill is in lining up those little suckers before the froggy eats them all. I mean seriously. Maybe I can be world champion Zuma player. That's a talent, no?

MelodyO said:

If your writing could enhance lives (even if it's just getting people away from their problems for a few hours), but you don't write because of fear or laziness or what have you, what are the moral implications of that? Or is it just your own damn business?

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Laziness is my talent. I'm doing my best to share it with the world, but some days I just can't be bothered.

MelodyO said:

I've really been wondering about this lately. If you have a God-given talent (or "genetically driven talent" for us atheists), do you have an obligation to yourself and the world to fulfill that potential?

If your writing could enhance lives (even if it's just getting people away from their problems for a few hours), but you don't write because of fear or laziness or what have you, what are the moral implications of that? Or is it just your own damn business?

Would it be the same if you had the skills to be a surgeon and squandered them because becoming a doctor was too hard? I mean, I know we're not curing cancer or anything, but there have definitely been books that have changed my life. Did those authors owe it to their readers to share their ideas if they possibly could?

Could this post have any more questions?

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Firstly, I don't believe that talent is "god given" or is a result of genes. I think what makes people turn into writers is more rooted in their personality and their childhood then "talent" magically bestowed upon them when they were born. I think what makes a person a writer consists largely of an imagination, a lust for knowledge and most importantly a love of telling stories and entertaining people. All of this stems from personality, nothing else. Will my writing change lives? I don't know. I don't care. When I write, I do it first and foremost to entertain myself. If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it. I don't feel like I have an responsability to change the world through my writing. All I want to do is entertain. If I can change a few lives along the way, great.

I don't believe that any of us are obligated by our proclivities. Certainly my life would be richer if some skill I might have improves the world in any small way. The Golden Rule is nothing if not self-serving. But I don't believe that living up to a potential is a moral imperative.

I don't think it makes anyone a jerk to not use a natural talent. Many people have several different talents, and they have the choice which one they want to develop and use. It all depends what makes you happy, and what you find most fulfilling.