“Being a good accountant/ actuary/ architect/ bailiff/ quilter/ programmer/ systems engineer/ writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet” is a saying that has been printed on many images. “Being a good writer is 3 percent talent and 97 percent not being distracted by the Internet” was published in the San Antonio (TX) Express-News on November 13, 2004.

The percentages sometimes differ. “Being a good worker is 5% talent, 95% not being distracted by the internet” was posted on Twitter on December 8, 2010.

Technology journalist and author Cyrus Farivar is often credited with coining the saying. Farivar responded with a tweet on March 1, 2018:

“I did not coin it. A friend, @gisaster, found it on a website somewhere circa 2002/2003 and I adopted it. I don’t know where it came from.”


13 November 2004, San Antonio (TX) Express-News, “Internet is just a fount of distraction” by Michael O’Rourke, pg. 1E:
“Being a good writer is 3 percent talent and 97 percent not being distracted by the Internet.”

A writer friend of mine sent me this quotation in an e-mail. He wrote the e-mail as a distraction from what he was supposed to be writing. He found the quotation while being distracted from his writing and surfing the Internet. I took the opportunity to be distracted from my writing to write him about how true it was that the Internet was a powerful seductress and was indeed distracting. We continued to be distracted by e-mailing each other about distraction. We then continued our distraction by trying to find the writer of the quotation so we could properly attribute it when we quoted it in e-mails to other writer friends who would take the opportunity to be distracted by the e-mail we wrote about distraction, which distracted us from the writing we were supposed to be focused on. Internet distraction is a Ponzi scheme of time.

Environmental, Health & Safety—Updates
“Being A Good Writer Is 3% Talent, 97% Not Being Distracted By The Internet.”
Posted on October 7, 2006. Filed under: Uncategorized
I don’t have any information about where this image came from, or who created it (anyone know?), but I love it. Link to full-size. (Thanks, Cyrus Farivar, whose email sig reads “Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.”).

Google Books
Virtuality and Virtualization:
Proceedings of the International Federation for Information Processing
Edited by Kevin Crowston, Sandra Sieber and Eleanor Wynn
New York, NY: Springer
2007
Pg. 190:
Occasionally, fields were filled with distance and humor (bio: “Being a good worker is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet").

Twitter
Ross Mayfield‏
@Ross
From an email sig: “Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the
Internet.”
10:48 AM - 16 Jul 2007

Twitter
victoria‏
@victoria
“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” Heh.
7:19 PM - 17 Sep 2007

Twitter
Alex SoojungKim Pang‏
@askpang
“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” (Cyrus Farivar)
12:47 AM - 18 Dec 2007

Google Groups: alt.horror
Re: Happy Martin Luther King Day.
Jared
1/22/08
(...)
-- Arkera
~ Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet ~”

Twitter
Lidia Monika‏
@LidiaMonika
Being a good employee is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet.
9:37 PM - 5 Aug 2010

Twitter
HEAVYNESS‏
@DJHEAVYNESS
Lol RT @InKennoWeTrust: Being a good worker is 5% talent, 95% not being distracted by the internet
2:07 PM - 8 Dec 2010

Twitter
chinnamama‏
@chinnamama
Being a good worker is 1% talent, 99% not being distracted by the internet.
9:53 PM - 1 Feb 2011

Twitter
Writing Related‏
@Quotes4Writers_
“Being a good worker is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” Anonymous http://bit.ly/fzxGZ6
7:15 PM - 24 Mar 2011

PC World
Review: Page Four provides the tools writers need, without distractions
By Ian Harac
PCWorld | MAR 29, 2013 9:58 AM PT
(...)
I got a t-shirt for my birthday:"Writing is 5% talent and 95% not being distracted by the internet.” It could just as easily say “distracted by your word processor.”

Google Books
The Communication Clinic:
99 Proven Cures for the Most Common Business Mistakes
By Barbara Pachter and Denise Cowie
New York, NY: McGraw Hill Professional
2016
Pg. 6:
An unknown source said, “Being a good writer is 3 percent talent, 97 percent not being distracted by the Internet.”

Twitter
Writers Block PH‏
@writersblockph
“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” ~Anonymous #writing #quotes
7:00 PM - 28 Feb 2018

Twitter
Cyrus Farivar‏
@cfarivar
Replying to @barrypopik
I did not coin it. A friend, @gisaster, found it on a website somewhere circa 2002/2003 and I adopted it. I don’t know where it came from.
12:38 AM - 1 Mar 2018