Based entirely on practical experiences (both learning and teaching several subjects), talent does matter at two points: When you just entered a new field, tal

Based entirely on practical experiences (both learning and teaching several subjects), talent does matter at two points: When you just entered a new field, talent will propel you ahead faster, for a while. (I'd say it's about 5%-10% of the way to mastery, but that's a wild guess). Then, both talented and untalented people need to work equally hard. Maybe the talented ones get ahead slightly faster, but overall it's a level playing field. Then, once you approach mastery (let's say at 93%, for arguments sake), talent becomes important again. Without it, you can work as hard as you want, you will not progress, or you will progress very, very slowly. But even if you are talented, that last step takes _insane_ dedication. I'm not talking about the "mastery" level in the 10,000 hour sense. I'm talking about being at the absolute top of your field. Talent determines the upper limit. Which means for most people, having talent or not only matters at the beginning of the journey. (Because few strive to attain absolute mastery) Edit: And I just realized that I could've skipped half of my post by just reading the article :)