Aptitude and it's absence

Once we're adults, we seldom learn a completely new skill, from scratch. We scaffold from existing skills, which gives us a comforting illusion of aptitude or latent talent.

When we encounter a skill where we have no aptitude, what do we do? I suspect most of us just give up, lacking any positive feedback of praise (external) or enjoyment (internal). It's hard on our egos to continue doing something badly, especially if progress is glacially slow.

A friend whom I admire greatly once told me that he had 'zero' aptitude for managing staff. He avoided team leadership for as long as he could, but eventually if he wanted more interesting work and more money, he'd also have to have direct-reports (aka underlings). He told me that lacking any natural understanding of people managing, he'd had to go back to first principals and deliberately learn how to get from 'crap' to 'less 'crap' at managing without needing aptitude. Over time he gradually became adequate and later good. He claims that experience and perseverance is much more important than aptitude, which he still claims to lack.

Aptitude and it's absence can both be problems. but only if we allow them to be. What do you believe you're 'crap' at? When my friend talks about managing staff, he radiates well-earned capability and pride.

This is post 63 of 100 posts in 100 days.
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