content: Great little quote about this. Tell me.  What is it that men value in others?  Well?  What do you think?  If a man or woman were to have a talent, which would be the most revered, best regarded, considered of the most worth?         Er…music?  Yes, a common answer, I once asked this question of some very wise scholars.  What do men consider the most valuable of talents?  One mentioned artistic ability, as you so keenly guessed.  Another chose great intellect.  The final chose the talent to invent, the ability to design and create great devices. Aesthetic genius, invention, acumen, creativity.  Noble ideals indeed.  Most men would pick one of these, if given the choice, and name them the greatest of talents.  What beautiful liars we are. You think I’m a cynic, you think I’m going to tell you that men claim to value these ideals, but secretly prefer base talents.  The ability to gather coin or to charm women.  Well, I am a cynic, but in this case, I actually think those scholars were honest.   Their answers speak for the souls of men.  In our hearts, we want to believe in—and would choose—great accomplishment and virtue.  That’s why our lies, particularly to ourselves, are so beautiful.          So what is the most valuable talent a man can have?  I haven’t the faintest idea, fortunately, that wasn’t the question.  I didn’t ask what was most valuable, I asked what men value most.  The difference between those questions is both tiny and as vast as the world itself all at once.  In this, as in all things, our actions give us away.  If an artist creates a work of powerful beauty—using new and innovative techniques—she will be lauded as a master, and will launch a new movement in aesthetics.  Yet what if another, working independently with that exact level of skill, were to make the same accomplishments the very next month?  Would she find similar acclaim?  No.  She’d be called derivative. Intellect.  If a great thinker develops a new theory of mathematics, science, or philosophy, we will name him wise.  We will sit at his feet and learn, and will record his name in history for thousands upon thousands to revere.  But what if another man determines the same theory on his own, then delays in publishing his results by a mere week? Will he be remembered for his greatness? No.  He will be forgotten. Invention.  A woman builds a new design of create worth—some fabrial or feat of engineering.  She will be known as an innovator.  But if someone with the same talent creates the same design a year later—not realizing it has already been crafted—will she be rewarded for her creativity? No.  She’ll be called a copier and a forger. And so, in the end, what must we determine?  Is it the intellect of a genius that we revere?  If it were their artistry, the beauty of their mind, would we not laud it regardless of whether we’d seen their product before? But we don’t.  Given two works of artistic majesty, otherwise weighted equally, we will give greater acclaim to the one who did it first.  It doesn’t matter what you create.  It matters what you create before anyone else. So it’s not the beauty itself we admire.  It’s not the force of intellect.  It’s not invention, aesthetics, or capacity itself.  The greatest talent that we think a man can have?  Seems to me that it must be nothing more than novelty.             -pg. 999-1000 Way of Kings. TL;DR The last paragraph. Novelty, timing, presentation, and equal achievements means less than 2nd place.