I feel like there certainly must be some folks who have development as a talent. They know how to assimilate (like I did with the Japanese method of knife sharpening, which was new to me 3 or 4 years ago, but which I assimilated after 2 or 3 practice runs) new techniques like OO development, or functional programming, or TDD, by just sort of reading about it, maybe watching a video, or some other quick thing, and then just being able to do it.

My run up with a new language is usually more like a couple of days. Or a week, but included in that is systems engineer stuff too. I spent maybe 8 or the last 10 years as an implementing and maintaining systems engineer for server farms. So when I start programming in, say, Python, I want to know how to set it up on my web host, how to set up TDD, how to use git to deploy it, etc. So that's part of my run up, especially now while I'm a full time student.

A lot of folks will tell you that a talent is irreplaceable, but I think, both from my cultivation of knife sharpening skills, and also from my experience in tech, that you can replace talent with a good 20 - 30 years of practice, every few months, or maybe having a full time job with it for 2 or 3 years. Maybe 5, for the really advanced stuff.