Thread by @visakanv

when I was younger I thought that talent was rare, but as I get older I realize that the answer is so much weirder than that. talent is not ~super~ rare. but talent hides, talent often doesn't want to be found, talent is scared, talent is clueless

you could revise the definition of talent such that "it's only talent if it's also brave, bold, sensitive and savvy, otherwise it's just sparkling potential" or something of the sort... I'm in two minds about that

it's just so strange to contrast how

there's this whole sphere of people who have minimal talent, minimal taste, but they're just really loud and obnoxious about LARPing success, and they even get some of it in a tedious sense

then there's talent that's scared, or just clueless

like with each passing year I am more and more confident that most of the best artists in the world just go unknown. probably the best science/tech minds too. Elon has that anecdote about going to Netscape to ask for a job, standing in the lobby, being shy/nervous and going home

regardless of what your assessment is of Elon, like, my point isn't about him, it's about all the others

it's about all the planes that don't make it home

all the creative spirit that dies, or is locked in stasis, or closeted

we have *billions* of people in the world

how many people do you know? I have made it a priority in life to aggressively get to know as many people as I possibly can. I would say I know like... 10,000 people, maybe. Push it up an order of magnitude, 100,000 people

that rounds down to like 0% of people

every single time I host an ii salon, overqualified experts show up who make me feel like *they* should be the host instead

I host a salon about aesthetics, a professional semiotician shows up

salon about optics, iirc some guy with 30+ years experience in related fields

but – and not to project too much assumptions about these people – for the most part, they don't want to do the hosting themselves. it's too much visibility, maybe. perhaps it's professionally risky, idk. and I respect that

but what it tells me is that

if I make bold, audacious leaps of faith

there will be people who show up quietly behind the scenes to support me

to lend me their strength, their knowledge, their expertise

it's a huge honor and also like a massive societal-level optical illusion

the world is held up, held together, by all these people that few people really know about

all the attention is focused on whoever *volunteers* to be the face of the operations, the face of the movements

which is it's own kind of chaotic hell, yes...

https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1361330483292856324

as a person who's very sensitive about things like credit, my first instinct is "we should give more credit where it is due!"

but funnily-ironically, often these people don't *want* to have their names and pictures plastered on everything

so even this has to be managed artfully

it's just wild to me, the conflicting messages in the commons

I have very rarely met a talented person who needed to Hustle and Grind

I mean, ok- I don't want to be prescriptive here

each person gets to make their own choices about how much exposure they want

but still

oops threading error

https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1361422314269630464

I can think of like a dozen people like this who would be better writers than me, but you will never hear from

https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1085726245646610435