Talent is an ambiguous term. To me, it means someone who is capable solving the almost-impossible problem or solving a hard problem in a unique way. It is someone who has the potential to give a competitive advantage to a company or initiate a major change to society if given a chance.

In my experience, talent needs to be challenged and grown. There are clear signs of talent but they are not the ones that are typically focused on in a technical interview. It is not what do you already know. It is rather how do you approach a problem where you don't have all the information or what conventions bother you? Or someone who has deep insights from outside the standard areas.

Talent is not currently as valued as much as people claim. What is valued is productivity and someone who appears to add value. Talent usually means being able to claim credit for a key problem being fixed or a standard trend getting successfully implemented at a company.

I've been in the industry for a long time. There is so much latent talent in discriminated groups that I once thought that pure greed alone would cure racism and sexism in the tech industry. That has not been the case.