which is more important: having talent or working hard? Why?

Hard work is more important than talent because if someone has a talent, that person will lose it because of proudness, and hard work makes talent. Someone has a talent, and they feel like they are the best person at it, so instead of working hard, they just sit on the couch, and rest, just being useless.

>"Hardworking or Talent? Hardworking is a Talent itself"
Garry Kasparov has some interesting quotes about talent and hard work:
>The ability to work hard for days on end without losing focus is a talent. The ability to keep absorbing new information after many hours of study is a talent.

It's better to be talented and hard-working than lazy and lacking talent. I don't know which is better between talented and lazy or hard-working but inable. The former is kind of a waste, the latter is kind of heart-breaking.

Either is a good quality.

Most talents comes as the result of hard work.

I disagree with the layout of #1. Just because someone has a talent, doesn't mean that they are proud or decides to rest on their laurels.

of course having talent is important; you can work hard after that ;)

I would say both are important, although if I didn't work hard I'd probably only be like 1500-1700 range in antichess, where i was a little less than a year ago. Also all my other ratings in almost every variant have improved since then, and all of them have since I first started.

I choose talent so I won't work very hard and long hours. I have plenty of time to enjoy hobbies

I don't know which is more important but I do know talent plus hard work equals excellence.

@Dukedog
You sound like Bill Cosby :)