But that kind of motivation doesn't easily fit Troy Griffin, who applies his "intuitive medium" talents to murder investigations.
The four musicians played their set like a bunch of medium-talent, delusional, backstabbing traitors.
Pencil drawings don't have to go away, but those who continue to use the medium lack talent.
This side, on the other hand, encapsulates the triumph of hard work, a band of medium-range talents whipping themselves to victory via a shared sense of purpose and the dull repetition of practice.
"In an industry where enormous sums of money must be raised to make and release a single movie, and in which you have to cater to as broad a demographic as possible in order to see a return on investment," said the ShortFest programming director, Darryl Macdonald, "the short-film medium allows new talent to emerge without the high-risk stakes".
These proved the most rewarding medium for his talents, and he became one of the most popular jazz pianists of his time.
But the greed and the philistinism didn't matter, because something about the medium, and the talents it attracted, put the movies, Thomson says, "on the cusp of feeling for an entire society".
This year has seen no exciting steps forward for the medium, no breakthrough talents that have taken the web by storm, and no moneyed producers are making serious investments in the previously hyped new format.
Knowledge, not nightclubbing, was Rogers's passion, and no medium was beyond her talents.
And for another, new and expressive ways of using the medium were explored by talents like Rodin, Degas, Picasso and Henry Moore.
Through the medium of your God-given talent!
