Let's say that there are 100s of unique 'traits' that correlate with talent at a complicated skill, like piano playing. And, the authors have correlated one of

Let's say that there are 100s of unique 'traits' that correlate with talent at a complicated skill, like piano playing. And, the authors have correlated one of those traits, working memory, with better piano playing. That's great. Does that mean I will be a great pianist if I have awesome working memory? No - I still need to practice and lots of other traits that make up that talent. I will hypothesize that every complicated skill requires 100s of unique traits to perform that skill well. I will also hypothesize that each of us Humans have 1000s or 10000s of unique traits, and for each of these we fit onto some Normal curve. Does that mean that we wait around to discover that we are two standard deviations from the mean on every trait that is required to accomplish a complex skill? Hell no. We try to identify the few or several traits for which we excel for that task, we emphasize those traits, and we practice. Yes - there's no question that we are all made differently. Does that matter? It's hard to say, until we try. Things like aptitude tests seem to test for a very narrow range of traits. And, all they do is discourage those that score poorly from pursuing skills, even if those who score poorly may have other traits that more than make up the difference.