Is it better to think you're talented... or not?

When I got my first set of drums, my parents thought I was a natural. I let them think it – it felt good.

What they didn't see was the years I spent obsessed with drums before I ever sat down at a kit.

This episode is about talent: why we're so drawn to the idea of it, why we quietly trust "naturals" over people who obviously worked (there's a Harvard study on exactly this that's hard to shake), and how believing my own talent cost me almost ten years of coasting.

I get into Carol Dweck's fixed vs. growth mindset, the 10,000-hours idea from Anders Ericsson and Malcolm Gladwell, and the factor almost nobody names: taste.

Talent, luck, and environment were handed to you. The work – and your taste – are the parts that are actually yours.

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