The programming talent myth

I'm not sure it is. I'm very slow at picking up arbitrary new skills: I tend to need a lot of time and a lot of sleep, and am quite likely to forget the lot. What I *can* do is almost never forget anything in an area I *have* picked up (and am interested in), and rapidly correlate anything I do manage to learn with what I know (and if I manage to do that, I won't forget it). More generally, most adults are bad at picking up arbitrary new skills quickly -- if you want *that*, find a young child, they're information sponges.

I think the talent needed is picking up skills *related to your existing experience base* quickly, not arbitrary new skills. This is, of course, a talent of wide general utility, and is in general why older people aren't worse at everything than younger ones despite the loss of cognitive reserve -- for many years the increased experience base more than makes up for it.