Is Intuition A Synonym For Talent?

In an article I wrote and posted on my blog (this blog), I gave the impression that talent and intuition were two of a pair. It served its purpose in the context I applied it and it's probably okay to use it in that sense on an informal basis or in spoken language. This post isn't really about setting records straight if anything, I think it leans more towards drawing a line between these two human qualities for the purpose of understanding and education. Is intuition a synonym for talent? Either way you look at it we're still going to come out on a side that shows why sometimes, one can't quite exist without the other.

First of course,  comes the definitions.

Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason.^[1] The word intuition comes from Latin verb intueri which is usually translated as to look inside or to contemplate. —Wikipedia

Another dictionary calls it Instinctive knowing; immediate apprehension.

Talent means the skill that someone has quite naturally to do something that is hard. Someone who has talent is able to do something without trying hard.

                There is intuition and there is talent and the definitions above try to distinguish one from the other and yet, inadvertently create a subtle connection between the two subjects.

A persistent attitude is necessary in gaining mastery in both areas. One has to be mildly obsessed while engaging his/her talent to become something of an expert and even so before he is able to max the moments of instant total cognition. These two are abilities and while being consistently intuitive can be called a talent, it appears that intuition of itself though an ability does not interpret as talent.

Let's say you possess a skill to get at immediate apprehension naturally probably, of something you had no chance in hell of knowing you might be accused of possessing intuitive talent. It comes easy enough without much effort on your part. Talent remains talent and suffice it to say that not all special or natural abilities lean heavily on intuition (though being intuitive might help get the job done better). Having a burst of intuition once every hundred years is not talent. Such individual is probably better off considered lucky.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

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I Ain't

Inspired by Dr. Chinua Achebe

I ain’t got limbs,

But I’m a successful writer;

I ain’t got feet,

And I’m the world’s fastest runner;

I ain’t got skills, ya’ll

But I am an inventor of dimensions;

I ain’t got brains,

But I am Albert Einstein;

I ain’t got ears,

But I’m Ludwig Van Beethoven;

I ain’t got a dime,

But I’m the richest dude who ever lived.

I’m keeping my head up;

I ain’t ever giving up.

I’m tied to Destiny’s apron

This is coming straight outta the cauldron.

Ain’t got no monument erected in my name,

But I’m sure as heck making history.

I ain’t got noble blood seeping thro’ my veins

But I am royalty.

Measuring my actions

With a surgeon’s precision,

As mysterious as the eclipse,

Total like the finality of the apocalypse.

I ain’t got a face to save,

But I am a respectable personality;

I ain’t free,

But I’m a Pilgrim making stunning Progress;

I ain’t got no inspiration,

But I’m spitting poetry like Shakespeare;

I ain’t got no vision,

But my every breath fulfils a dream.

I got stranger convictions

Than the condemned with his head thro the noose,

Of better things in store:

Ignoring challenges conditions

And practically striving to even the score.

I ain’t got balls,

But I’m battling lions three times my size;

I ain’t got no locus,

But I’m situated and ready to roll;

Taking up challenges

One step at a time,

This fella gonna hit it big in his prime.

Emancipate myself from aggression,

Set my sights on redemption,

It’s time to make some changes around here.

Step out on his flyness, that’s me

As I charge the atmosphere.

I got no nuclear war heads

But I rule the world, nevertheless;

I ain’t got no strategy,

But I’m confounding adversaries from all angles;

I ain’t got strong biceps

But the worlds strapped over my shoulder;

I ain’t got no incentive,

Still I rise steady above status quo;

I’m trapped. I ain’t got a way of escape

But lookit here, I found Aladdin’s lamp.

Destiny’s child is who I be-

Descendant of a royal pedigree.

I ain’t got no sight of eyes,

But I’m putting finishing touches to my Paradise Lost.

I am the African antelope,

And this is my jungle.

My antlers positioned like periscopes

Always on alert for any rumble.

Danger is my beat,

Ducking hunter’s bullets and I’m dancing.

I’ve learned that when I believe in who I am

I’d never have to underestimate who I ain’t,

Or stand in the way of what I can

…or can’t.

Akpan

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