Obama affirms teh gay.

[d0zer]

Jealous when regarding the supremely talented as having earned it?

I also thought that was strange. Usually the jealousy is towards people with "natural talent" from people who don't believe it's worth it for them to work at something.

This breaks down to nature vs nurture, and to be the absolute best at sports, or most things you often need a lot of both. Artistic talent is a little more nebulous due to the subjectivity involved, and though I've never heard of evidence for this, it's not outside the realm of possibility that there is some genetic component to artistic expression. That component of course still has to be nurtured by a lot of experience.

Every "child prodigy" story involves obsessive personalities and tons of time investment by the child. Maybe something came a little easier to the child so they were more likely to stick with something and they had the right environment to nurture their genetic advantage. Like most things, this is multi-faceted and I don't think it's right to take a side because reality is more complicated than that.

The problem with the term "natural talent", is the implication that nature gave that person talent instead of that person working to acquire the talent. A genetic predisposition towards excelling at something doesn't guarantee anything. I'd be willing to bet that there are tons of potential child prodigies out there who just lack the environmental support to cultivate the skills necessary to excel at what they're designed to excel at.