You can X...if you X

A friend posted the blog post You can draw...if you draw and I think it is so good I'm going to talk about it!

Replace X in the title with anything you want to do. The Missus and I are in the process of teaching this to our 5 year old using the violin. 3 minutes a day for the last 6 months and she can now play at talent shows at school. She didn't believe us at first. But now she is well on her way to being able to play the violin as good as her Grandpa; with lots of practice. Practice practice practice.

I learned how to ride a unicycle 2 years ago. Now I mountain unicycle all over the Santa Cruz mountains. I hear from people all the time "I could never do that". It turned out to be such a good workout the Missus picked it up, my sister became addicted and our 5 year old is learning as well.

I do think some people are inherently more skilled at certain things, but that doesn't mean with practice and perseverance one can't do anything they set their mind to. Honestly that's one of the reasons I get so annoyed at the current hiring practices for software engineers and alluded to in this post. I've interviewed countless people who I think could do the job. And the question usually isn't "are they smart", the quest that should be answered is "are they a team player". I'd rather have a whole bunch of average people that can learn and work as a team than a couple rock stars with a complex.

So what is it that you want to learn to do?