Chris Anderson: If you could pick one thing, Tyler, that gives you hope for the future, how would you encapsulate that?
Tyler Cowen: There is more talent in the world today that has a chance of doing something good than at any time in world history, and by a considerable magnitude.
So if you go back even a few decades, say you are a potential genius born in Nigeria, South Asia, China – most parts of the world – your chance of making a difference was almost zero, and it was through no fault of your own. And now, by no means everyone from those regions, but really a great number of people from those regions, are making major contributions, and that’s just going to continue and accelerate, and that seems to me more important than any other factor.
Tyler Cowen interviewed by Chris Anderson on The TED Interview
See also:
The Mundanity of Excellence
TC on Talent (1): Talent Spotting as Art, and overrated / underrated
TC on Talent (2): Prejudice and Diversity
TC on Talent (3): The Eye of the Tiger