We tend to divide events in the world between the ‘natural’ (those caused by natural or physical means) and the ‘supernatural’ (those events that in some way are caused by non-natural agents). But Scripture doesn’t do this, since God is sovereign over both. There are no non-supernaturally caused events as far as the Bible is concerned. 

1. The 10,000 Hours Rule

The 10,000 hours rule was first popularised by Malcolm Gladwell in his landmark book Outliers, published in 2008.

Gladwell describes the efforts of psychologists to try to discover whether there is anything innate about talent. Is Steve Smith ‘naturally gifted’ in some predetermined way that once he picked up a cricket bat, the art of batsmanship came instinctively to him? Did the game of cricket mesh in some deep way with something in his soul? Was his gift for cricket almost supernaturally given to him?

We have a hard time relinquishing that idea, even though as Gladwell shows it actually has no basis in fact. Of course, there are some prerequisites for being an elite sportsperson or a world-class pianist: a nine-fingered person is unlikely to become the latter and physical dimensions play a part in the former. But all that aside: is genius born, or made?

Almost entirely made, would seem to be the answer. If you analyse the lives of some of the most extraordinarily ‘gifted’ people in all fields, you will find that environmental factors played an enormous part in their becoming so gifted. And this is the significance of the ’10,000 hours’ rule: the elite performers in every area will have spent as many as 10,000 hours practising in their given area. Think Tiger Woods: from two years of age, trained in golf by a fanatical father. Andre Agassi describes his own wrathful father’s obsession with the tennis success of his son from before primary school. Don Bradman spent endless hours hitting a golf ball against a corrugated iron surface with a cricket stump because he had nothing else to do. Johnny Wilkinson famously practised his goal-kicking on Christmas Day.

In each case ‘natural ability’ ‘giftedness’ or even ‘talent’ can’t even begin to account for the extraordinary powers of these people. So why do we persist in using language that implies that someone has had a supernatural visitation of some kind? I think partly it is because what we see in the talented (so-called!) is almost miraculous to us; it seems to come from nowhere and to look effortless. It is us saying that abilities are mysterious.

But also, by calling it a ‘gift’ we seem to say: the bestowal of such abilities comes by some arbitrary force beyond us, and if I am not a concert pianist or tennis ace then that is not my fault. It helps us maintain our sense that we are equal, even when some people seem to possess capabilities of which I can only dream. And that’s a comfort, because our envy of the gifted is in part because they have such an easy time with identity: they simply seem to know that they are a chess player or a sculptor, and they don’t have to spend fruitless hours questing after some alternative purpose to their lives.

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