161MC: Lecture ‘Inspiration’ Radio Programme

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01h75df

Above is a radio programme we were recommended to listen to in a previous lecture about ‘natural talent’. The point of this programme is to argue the fact that there is no such thing as ‘natural talent’ and no one is born as an immediate child prodigy. Instead the only thing that does exist is hard work and lots of it. Everything they achieve comes through practice. 10,000 hours of practise allegedly. That works out to about 3 and a half years, eight hours a day, seven days a week.

The speaker, Matthew Syed, argues this point and says that we cannot pin people’s talents down to them just being good. To really appreciate these talents we must look beyond this facade and look to the amount of hours of practise they have put in to get to this stage of expertise. He draws reference to Mozart in this instant and says that he put in the exact amount of hours to become a prodigy in composing at an early age, as he started learning piano at the age of 1.

This was recommended as an inspirational message as, due to us being media students, it highlights the importance of how many hours we need to take to become professional in a certain field of media. This was also interspersed with a past student who came in and spoke to us about how he adapted to pursuing a career in photography after leaving University. He basically reminded us of the importance of branding and making yourself known in the professional world, through creating a website and making connections. As I hope to be a video editor, this seems a very difficult field to get into as I do not know any places that specialise or offer work in this area. As such, I hope as the course progresses we are given help or guided in the right direction to make calls and perhaps placements over the coming years.