Grit

Two different books

Duckworth demonstrates her own grit by giving an expert performance narrating her own book. It's clear she put considerable work into learning to narrate effectively. She does a great job.

To me, this book has two distinct halves.

The first half is excellent and easily deserves 5 stars. She shows that a simple, self-reported test on people's willingness to stick with goals carries significantly more predictive power than more traditional predictors, such as SAT scores or athletic ability. I walked away from this section with an all new appreciation of how crucial it is for me to focus on a few, high-priority things in my own life if I ever want to achieve greatness. Her work here is based on sufficiently strong research that it forces the reader to rethink their assumptions about talent and accomplishment.

The second half is based less on research, and more on anecdotes. As a result, it reads a bit like a fluffy self-help book. The chapter on the importance of "purpose" to success is basically unsubstantiated. None of the testimonials prove that "purpose" is important to success because the people she interviews could equally just want to rationalize their story in a way that makes them feel good. While purpose may be important to some people, Duckworth failed to convince that pure self-interest would have been an insufficient motivator for plenty of the successful people she interviewed. Her interviews with investment bankers made me throw up in my mouth a bit.

It is also seems counter-productive to include purpose and passion in the definition of grit. The ability of people to push themselves through tasks they do not enjoy is itself an important, distinct quality to understand, and it would be valuable to have a word that refers specifically to that. I know that part of my own success rests on the fact that I have been willing to do unpleasant tasks that I felt no passion or purpose for, but which I felt were necessary. I have also felt passion and purpose for some goals, but lacked the grit to withstand the pain of putting in the effort to achieve them. Passion and purpose may indeed be motivators of grit, but to say they are part of it causes the term to lose its distinct meaning.

This book should perhaps be called "Persistence", of which grit, passion and purpose are three parts. As it stands, "Grit" is, in effect, defined by grit, passion and purpose. The fact that the term appears to be operating as part of its own definition shows that there is a conflation of concepts at play.

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Simple but hard to do

This is an excellent book that pulls together several concepts and their role in perseverance and success. Concepts that are becoming well known are: people can score higher on IQ tests when they have a growth mindset (believing that they can learn more instead of believing that they are born intelligent or not) and people can become experts through deliberate practice. An average person can become better than a "talented" person through many hours of practice and guidance from coaches and teachers who can provide precise feedback on what to work on. "Grit" takes it to the next step - how to stay motivated to spend all those hours practicing and focused on the goal (or as the author would say, be gritty). There is also a 10-question test on the author's website to measure grit. If you answer honestly, it provides a basis for which to measure yourself over time of your perseverance.

The steps are simple but hard to do. Experiment and explore to find an area of interest. Practice to overcome obstacles. The more you accomplish, the more passionate you'll feel and the more committed you'll feel to the purpose. Determination and direction are what will lead you to success.

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Spend time listening to something else.

Go download the free Freakonimics podcast episode "How to Get More Grit In Your Life". It sums up everything you need to know and won't take 9 hours. I have around 100 books in my Audible Library. I have only returned 1 book to date. I'm returning this.

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The Soul of The Super Achievers

I have been studying ways to improve myself and my kids for almost a decade. I've read and listened to many books that talked about grit. And I searched many times for "Angela Duckworth and grit". Well, what a beautiful surprise to find this excellent book and to listen to it twice already, in the month of its release. Angela Duckworth is the main scientist that studies GRIT. And in this book she delivers all her knowledge in a very profound yet comprehensive way.
But, instead of writing only about grit and her researches, she goes beyond and talks about play, deliberate practice, flow and many other important topics of the psychology of success.
I will try to highlight the message, but I recommend you to read the book at least once.
Grit is a consistency of effort and practice. A gritty person have the attitude of never giving up, have an obsession and go for it, try to be the best in the world and always search for ways to improve; A gritty person has passion and perseverance.
Having grit is better than having talent (but better to have both). To have grit is to have a laser bean focus (specially on your weaknesses) to achieve what you desire, to get feedback from others and from yourself and use it to make adjustments to be more competent.
A terrific book with plenty of sound advices. Read it and share with others that the ultimate book of success has arrived.

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No More Obsessing on Talent!

When I picked up "Grit", I was pretty sure I was going to feel pretty crummy as I was one of those kids who flunked 'The Marshmallow Test', like, bad (I don't wanna talk about it...). But it turns out that you can learn grit (and that you get grittier as you get older through bouncing back from all of life's pitfalls and disappointments. BUT! You have to make sure you keep getting up after you're knocked down).
Sure there is growing grit from the outside-in: parents, mentors, teachers play a very important role, but that's not anywhere near the half of it. You can also grow grit from the inside-out: by cultivating your interests (Do it! Very, very few people know what their one 'top-level' goal through life will be); by challenging your skills every day; by connecting your work to a purpose beyond yourself (This was so wonderful and important to me. I started seeing my self-worth at work, and want to make myself worthier to the kids I work with and to my co-workers); and by learning to hope when all seems lost. Learned helplessness? Sure. Learned hopefulness/optimism? Now we're talking!
Through the book, examples are given, people are talked or referred to, entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, creative types like John Irving. It's fascinating and inspiring.
And make sure you don't forget to download the PDF materials. You'll find a way to rate yourself on the Grit Scale, a reflection of who you are now and which can grow over time.
Learn to do the hard work; learn to pare down your goals; learn to develop your one guiding principle, and you're golden.
The only flaw in this book is that it's a study, rather than your usual how-to book. That's not a bad thing, it just means that the jury's still out on a few of the developing stats. Most importantly, is living with a paragon of grit easy to do? Duckworth asked her two daughters, and though she said they love it, the way she quoted them, I dunno. Sounds like her daughters wanted her to relax a little.
That won't be a problem with me. Sometimes I'm so relaxed, I'm darned near comatose. But "Grit" was just the passionate and enlightening study I needed to hear about. I'm really, really glad I listened to it.
"Fall seven; Rise eight...!"

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Wish I Read This 25 Years Ago

I've been a fan of self-help and psychology books for a long time. I learned a lot of the lessons in this book from an old baseball coach when I was 13 or 14. I took a lot of those lessons from baseball and taught myself (with help) how to play guitar, how to build websites and code, how to start a business, and even soft skills like how to be more persuasive.

I heard about this book from the Freakonomics podcast and being a fan of Gladwell's Outliers and Dan Coyle's The Talent Code, I added it to my wish list.

This book is an essential piece for anyone that's working consistently to get better at a skill. Entrepreneurs, teachers, musicians, athletes and tech people will definitely find it valuable.

I'm sure I'll go back and listen to it at least a dozen times.

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A good listen

Honestly - I felt it took a bit of Grit to get through the book. There are great nuggets but at times, I felt like I was listening to a thesis paper.

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A must for everybody and particularly for parents

Any additional comments?

Grit seems a simple concept, but that powerful. Angela Duckworth deconstructs why grit is one of the key differentiators for achieving success and fulfillment in life. the numerous examples and studies show how grit is important and critical. I particularly appreciated the chapters on parenting and how intentionally to grow grit with kids. A must read for everybody and particularly parents!

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Really, a simple solution to a happy life

I have followed Dr Duckworths's work for years. If one incorporates what Dr Duckworths's research has shown, the answer to how to lead a happy, satisfied, and fulfilled life is at hand

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I am so excited for my family to discuss this book

Angela articulates GRIT like a screenwriter taking a perfect novel to a 100 page script. The movie (This book) is even better than the book (Her TED Talk.) And despite knowing this book would be great,....and everyone will soon be talking about how great this is,....it will not disappoint. This is very hard to achieve and she has executed brilliantly. What else should I have expected from a MacArthur Genius. I would nominate Duckworth for the Head of The Department of Education if we wouldn't miss out on her future research. If the DOE did nothing else than communicate this message, again and again, like a marathon, eventually private capital would take over the financial burden of funding it because these concepts are proven and will lead to success (happiness and virtue) in the adults they become. Children and young adults globally are owed these words. The simple, yet hard (dedicated) practices in this book will make them and our system stronger, more resilient and to use Taleb's narrative, Antifragile. I am glad I bought the audiobook so I can re-listen often but I am about to clean out the inventory of books as gifts for my friends, parents of young kids and their educators. They will all be getting two copies so they can pass one on. Thank you Angela, I know you will stay with it.

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