Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.
Angela Duckworth, Grit
This is such an attractive thesis: for all of us, success is within reach. The book’s fun to read, and the argument is clearly presented. (I wish more scientists wrote books like this.) That said, “grit trumps everything” seems too neat a conclusion for something as complex as human achievement. Throughout the book, there’s not much discussion of the evidence for alternative explanations of success, and most of the studies cited were done by the author or closely-affiliated researchers (and the scientific literature has a widespread reproducibility crisis).
Update: this article specifically attacks the grit thesis and cites many of Duckworth’s papers, but the actual study is behind a paywall.
Quotes
The book is clear and fun, but doesn’t lend itself to great quotes. The quotes Duckworth pulls from other works are amazing, though!
You have made a convert of an opponent in one sense, for I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work; and I still think this is an eminently important difference.
Charles Darwin, quoted in Chapter 2Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are dampened, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.
William James, quoted in Chapter 2No one can see in the work of the artist how it has become. That is its advantage, for whenever one can see the act of becoming one grows somewhat cool…Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius. For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking…To call someone “divine” means: “here there is no need to compete.”
Nietzsche, quoted in Chapter 3Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But that path to the paradise of that achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration. There are daily small deaths.
Martha Graham, quoted in Chapter 7The true joy in life is to be a force of fortune instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
George Bernard Shaw, quoted in Chapter 12Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.
John Wooden, quoted in Chapter 12
Notes
- We’re distracted by talent. Intellectually agree that effort matters more, but still choose to hire for “naturals.”
- Effort counts twice:
achievement = effort * skill = effort * (effort * talent) - Grit scale (p. 55): passion plus perseverance
- Goals are a tree. Single top-level goal (e.g., “use psychological science to help kids thrive”) optimizes grit, maybe one for personal and one for work.
- Low-level goals are instrumental, swap freely in pursuit of high-level goals. High- and mid-level goals are long-term, need focus and passion.
- Grit grows over time. Partially hereditary, partially experience. Necessity
as catalyst (e.g., need to take care of parents).
- Passion: research shows that when people are interested in their work, they’re more satisfied and they perform better. Passion comes from discovery, then development, then deepening. Triggered by repeat experiences, not introspection.
- Practice: kaizen. ~10y, ~10k hours of deliberate practice. To one
researcher, it’s demanding, exhausting, impossible to sustain for more
than an hour at a time. Another calls it flow—ecstatic, effortless, in
the moment. Duckworth: gritty people do more deliberate practice and
experience more flow. Practice is for preparation, flow is for
performance. “In other words, there are different kinds of positive
experience: the thrill of getting better is one, and the ecstasy of
performing at your best is another.”
- Deliberate practice requires a clearly defined stretch goal, full concentration and effort, immediate and informative feedback, and repetition with reflection and refinement.
- Make it a habit.
- Change the way you experience it: no shame, no recriminations.
- Purpose: tie goal to others
- Hope: optimism, belief that setbacks are due to temporary circumstances. Hopelessness is a lack of perceived control. Fixed v growth mindset.
- Inculcating grit in others
- Parenting: must be wise, i.e. supportive and demanding, to encourage emulation. Then model grit.
- “The playing fields of grit.” Learned industriousness. Two years of sustained effort in one HS extracurricular, with a significant accomplishment.
- Culture of grit.
- Summary: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intellectual character (will, heart, mind). Grit is intrapersonal.