FEMI TAIWO ON MONDAY: NATURE VS NURTURE – A TIMELESS ARGUMENT

STRATEGY WITH FEMI TAIWO ON MONDAY

Oluwafemi Michael Taiwo, PhD

Michael is a first class chemical engineering graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and a PhD holder in same discipline from the University of Arkansas, United States. He works in a multinational energy giant in the United States.

Nature vs Nurture Series

Part 1: A Timeless Argument

[Why Winners Win is an introduction to this series, read it when you can.]

Are winners born or made? There are many variants of this question. For example, Are leaders born or made, et cetera? We are intrigued with people who achieve outstanding feats. We want to know whether they are just one-offs freaks of nature or if their achievement can be reproduced the way a baker can re-produce the same loaf of bread with the same recipe and mold. Are people winners by nature or nurture? That is, do we have a fortuitous combination of genes to thank or a careful upbringing? The lazy answer will be to say both. But this is an “either or” question; we want to pick a winner not settle for a compromise. If you say both, then a reasonable follow-up question would be in what proportion would nature mix with nurture to produce success: 50-50? 25-75? 80-20? Both, therefore, becomes untenable and unsatisfactory as an answer.

Whether achievers are born or made is a timeless argument because it taps into the deepest of our philosophies and whatever answer we choose has profound impact on the way we lead our lives. If we pursue to the utmost, the result of each answer, we arrive at a place we will rather not. For instance, if we say people are born winners, then why try? You are either born to excel or not, right? And if chromosome trumps training, why have a justice system that punishes offenders? If one can be born a winner then one can certainly be born a thief or a rapist or a murderer. And why punish the offender if he is so born? His defense of “I was born this way, I cannot help it” should be enough to acquit him of all charges, however heinous his crimes. Thus, an answer that favors fate discourages enterprise and provides a ready defense for the wayward.

If on the other hand you say achievers are made, then what explains the great variety of outcomes in life? Why do all who undergo the same training and put in the same effort not get the same results? This is a big source of depression in school kids and it scars their self-image sometimes, irredeemably. Why do two identical twins, raised in the same environment, turn out to be different in everything but looks? How come one is highly competitive and the other just doesn’t care? How come one is good at math and the other struggles? An answer that favors nurture thus leaves us grasping at straws. It fails to tell us why a student understands Newton’s Laws of Motion the first time she hears it and another student just never gets it, despite repeated application of effort.

I can see why it is tempting to say you need both to succeed. For each answer, in its pure form, lands us in an unsettling territory. This is why it is a timeless argument. It has been asked from the dawn of time and it will continue to be relevant. The next few articles will make a case for nurture, and then for nature and then attempt to resolve or at least offer a way to profit from the nature/nurture dynamic.