Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth on the trait that predicts who sticks, and who quits.
Video by Angela Lee Duckworth · TED . Summary and takeaways below are our own.
In short
A short, grounded talk about staying in the game, and what grit implies about how to treat failure.
Angela Duckworth left a consulting job to teach maths, and noticed her best students weren't always the ones with the highest IQ. Studying performance across hard settings, from military training to spelling bees to tough schools, she kept finding the same predictor of who succeeded. Not talent, not intelligence, but grit: passion and perseverance for long-term goals, the willingness to stick with something for years and get up after each setback.
For anyone prone to self-sabotage, the useful part is what grit implies about failure. Gritty people treat a setback as part of the process rather than a signal to stop.
Duckworth is honest that the science on how to build grit is still young, and points to growth mindset as one of the better bets we have.
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