Grit Read online

  CHAPTER 3: EFFORT COUNTS TWICE

  “The Mundanity of Excellence”: Daniel F. Chambliss, “The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and Olympic Swimmers,” Sociological Theory 7 (1989): 70–86.

  “dozens of small skills”: Ibid., 81.

  “You need to jazz it up”: Ibid., 86.

  “we have for athletic success”: Ibid., 78.

  “distinguishes the best among our athletes”: Ibid, 78.

  “It’s easy to do”: Ibid., 79.

  “anatomical advantages”: Daniel F. Chambliss, professor of sociology at Hamilton College, in an interview with the author, June 2, 2015.

  “how it came to be”: This is an informal translation, Friedrich Nietzsche, Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für Freie Geister (Leipzig: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1925), 135.

  “out of the ground by magic”: Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 80.

  “grows somewhat cool”: Ibid., 86.

  “the cult of the genius”: Ibid.

  “active in one direction”: Ibid.

  “giftedness, inborn talents!”: Ibid.

  human flourishing: Marty Seligman lays out the rationale for Positive Psychology in his presidential address to the American Psychological Association, reprinted in American Psychologist 54 (1999): 559–62.

  talent is how quickly: The word talent is used differently by different people, but I think the most intuitive definition is the one I’ve offered here. For evidence that individuals do differ in the rate at which they acquire skills, see Paul B. Baltes and Reinhold Kliegl, “Further Testing of Limits of Cognitive Plasticity: Negative Age Differences in a Mnemonic Skill Are Robust,” Developmental Psychology 28 (1992): 121–25. See also Tom Stafford and Michael Dewar, “Tracing the Trajectory of Skill Learning with a Very Large Sample of Online Game Players,” Psychological Science, 25 (2014), 511–18. Finally, see the work of David Hambrick and colleagues on factors other than practice that likely influence skill acquisition; for example, see Brooke N. Macnamara, David Z. Hambrick, and Frederick L. Oswald, “Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education, and Professions: A Meta-Analysis,” Psychological Science 25 (2014): 1608–18. A critique of this meta-analysis by psychologist Anders Ericsson, whose work we explore in depth in chapter 7, is posted on his website: https://psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.hp.html.

  “going to be the renaissance people”: “Oral History Interview with Warren MacKenzie, 2002 October 29,” Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-warren-mackenzie-12417.

  “our true interest lay”: Ibid.

  “40 or 50 pots in a day”: Warren MacKenzie, potter, in an interview with the author, June 16, 2015.

  “continue to engage the senses”: Warren MacKenzie, Artist’s Statement, Schaller Gallery, https://www.schallergallery.com/artists/macwa/pdf/MacKenzie-Warren-statement.pdf.

  “the most exciting things”: “Oral History,” Archives of American Art.

  “in my work today”: Ibid.

  “first 10,000 pots are difficult”: Alex Lauer, “Living with Pottery: Warren MacKenzie at 90,” Walker Art Center blog, February 16, 2014, http://blogs.walkerart.org/visualarts/2014/02/16/living-with-pottery-warren-mackenzie-at-90.

  “Garp was a natural storyteller”: John Irving, The World According to Garp (New York: Ballantine, 1978), 127.

  “the great storyteller”: Peter Matthiessen, quoted in “Life & Times: John Iriving,” New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/lifetimes/irving.html.

  Garp “could make things up”: Irving, Garp, 127.

  “my lack of talent”: John Irving, The Imaginary Girlfriend: A Memoir (New York: Ballantine, 1996), 10.

  SAT verbal score was 475: Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), 345–50.

  “lazy” and “stupid”: Ibid., 346.

  “frequently misspelled words”: Irving, Imaginary Girlfriend, 9.

  “slowly—and with my finger”: Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, 346.

  “you have to overextend yourself”: Ibid., 347.

  “no matter how difficult it is”: Ibid.

  “Rewriting is what I do best”: John Irving, “Author Q&A,” Random House Online Catalogue, 2002.

  “to have to go slowly”: Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, 347.

  “sickening work ethic”: 60 Minutes, CBS, December 2, 2007, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-smith-my-work-ethic-is-sickening. A lyric in one of Will Smith’s raps goes: “If you say you’re going to run three miles, and you only run two, I don’t ever have to worry about losing in nothing to you.” See “Will Smith Interview: Will Power,” Reader’s Digest, December 2006.

  “or I’m going to die”: Tavis Smiley, PBS, December 12, 2007.

  “healthy young men”: Clark W. Heath, What People Are: A Study of Normal Young Men (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945), 7.

  for only four minutes: Katharine A. Phillips, George E. Vaillant, and Paula Schnurr, “Some Physiologic Antecedents of Adult Mental Health,” The American Journal of Psychiatry 144 (1987): 1009–13.

  “strength of will”: Heath, Normal Young Men, 75.

  “becomes too severe”: Ibid., 74.

  “with mental health”: Phillips, Vaillant, and Schnurr, “Some Physiologic Antecedents,” 1012.

  “I’m not all that persistent”: George Vaillant, professor at Harvard Medical School and former director of the Grant Study, in an interview with the author, April 8, 2015.

  “never write the play or book”: William Safire, “On Language; The Elision Fields,” New York Times, August 13, 1989.

  “Eighty percent of success in life is showing up”: Ibid.

  less than they’d expected: Consumer Reports, “Home Exercise Machines,” August 2011.

  “beating on your craft”: Today show, NBC, June 23, 2008.

  CHAPTER 4: HOW GRITTY ARE YOU?

  Grit Scale: The original twelve-item Grit Scale, from which this ten-item version is adapted, was published in Duckworth et al., “Grit.” The correlation between these two versions of the scale is r = .99. Note also that, as you’ll learn in chapter 9, I’ve revised item 2, adding, “I don’t give up easily” to “Setbacks don’t discourage me.”

  how your scores compare: Data for these norms are from Duckworth et al., “Grit” Study 1. Note that there are numerous limitations of any measure, including self-report questionnaires like the Grit Scale. For an extended discussion, see Angela L. Duckworth and David S. Yeager, “Measurement Matters: Assessing Personal Qualities Other Than Cognitive Ability for Educational Purposes,” Educational Researcher 44 (2015): 237–51.

  “work in East Africa”: Jeffrey Gettleman, East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, in an interview with the author, May 22, 2015.

  “it was the easiest to fulfill the requirements”: Abigail Warren, “Gettleman Shares Anecdotes, Offers Advice,” Cornell Chronicle, March 2, 2015, http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/03/gettleman-shares-anecdotes-offers-advice.

  “I wanted to make it a part of my life”: Gettleman, interview.

  “who wants to work for a boring newspaper?”: Max Schindler, “New York Times Reporter Jeffrey Gettleman ’94 Chronicles His Time in Africa,” Cornell Daily Sun, April 6, 2011.

  “I was pretty lost academically”: Gettleman, interview.

  “have a life philosophy”: Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, in an interview with the author, June 2, 2015.

  they have ever been done before: For more on Pete’s perspective, see Pete Carroll, Win Forever: Live, Work, and Play Like a Champion (New York: Penguin, 2010). Some of the quotations in this section, and later in the book, are from interviews with the author between 2014 and 2015. Others are from Pete’
s book or public talks.

  “drive all my actions”: Carroll, Win Forever, 73.

  “and filling binders”: Ibid., 78.

  goals in a hierarchy: Material in this chapter on the hierarchical structure of goals from Angela Duckworth and James J. Gross, “Self-control and Grit: Related but Separable Determinants of Success.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 23 (2014): 319–25. On goal hierarchies more generally, see Arie W. Kruglanski et al., “A Theory of Goal Systems,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 34 (2002): 331–78. And, finally, for a review of goal-setting theory, see Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey,” American Psychologist 57 (2002): 705–17.

  an “ultimate concern”: Robert A. Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns: Motivation and Spirituality in Personality (New York: Guildford Press, 1999).

  when he retired in 1987: Ira Berkow, “Sports of the Times; Farewell, Sweet Pitcher,” New York Times, June 23, 1987.

  “day after day, year after year”: Pat Jordan, “Tom Terrific and His Mystic Talent,” Sports Illustrated, July 24, 1972, http://www.si.com/vault/1972/07/24/612578/tom-terrific-and-his-mystic-talent.

  “then I eat cottage cheese”: Ibid.

  “help me be happy”: Ibid.

  “positive fantasizing”: Gabriele Oettingen, “Future Thought and Behaviour Change,” European Review of Social Psychology 23 (2012): 1–63. For a terrific summary, and practical suggestions, on goal setting and planning, see Gabriele Oettingen, Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation (New York: Penguin, 2014).

  reportedly gave his personal pilot: James Clear, “Warren Buffett’s ‘Two List’ Strategy: How to Maximize Your Focus and Master Your Priorities,” Huffington Post, originally posted October, 24, 2014, updated December 24, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/warren-buffetts-two-list-strategy-how-to-maximize-your-focus-_b_6041584.html.

  a more important end: For instance, in one study, young adults wrote down their high-level, mid-level, and low-level goals; over the next two weeks, they reported on daily frustrations. People whose goals demonstrated a more organized, hierarchical structure subsequently demonstrated greater resilience in the face of daily frustrations. In particular, when confronted with frustrating experiences, they maintained a sense that they were in control of attaining their goals. In a related study, a more hierarchical goal structure predicted feeling less anger and annoyance in the face of daily frustrations over the next two weeks. See Michael D. Robinson and Sara K. Moeller, “Frustrated, but Not Flustered: The Benefits of Hierarchical Approach Motivation to Weathering Daily Frustrations,” Motivation and Emotion 38 (2014): 547–59.

  “improvise, adapt, overcome”: Michael Martel, Improvise, Adapt, Overcome: Achieve the Green Beret Way (Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2012).

  “made mine wither”: Robert Mankoff, How About Never—Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2014), 34.

  “I’ve written this book”: Syd Hoff, Learning to Cartoon (New York: Stravon Educational Press, 1966), vii.

  “How could anyone do more than twenty-seven cartoons?”: Mankoff, How About Never, 38.

  “I’m the funniest guy you ever met”: Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of the New Yorker, in an interview with the author, February 10, 2015.

  “I’m going to be a cartoonist”: Mankoff, interview.

  “wallpaper my bathroom”: Mankoff, How About Never, 44.

  “you too were one of the best”: Ibid., 46.

  “I looked up all the cartoons”: Mankoff, interview.

  “I had complete confidence”: Ibid.

  “things never work out”: Mankoff, How About Never, 114.

  301 exceptionally accomplished: Cox, “Early Mental Traits.”

  “Cox’s First Ten”: Ibid., 181. Presented here in alphabetical order by last name.

  “with somewhat less persistence”: Ibid., 187.

  CHAPTER 5: GRIT GROWS

  worth our attention: Psychologist Steve Heine has done research showing that if you think something is genetic, then you think it is “natural” and therefore the way things “should be.” For example, if you tell obese people that obesity has a genetic basis, they reduce their dieting efforts. See Ilan Dar-Nimrod and Steven J. Heine, “Genetic Essentialism: On the Deceptive Determinism of DNA,” Psychological Bulletin 137 (2011): 800–18. Perhaps people would not have such a knee-jerk reaction if they understood better that the interplay between genes and the environment is complex and dynamic. The interested reader might find the work of Elliot Tucker-Drob on this topic especially illuminating; for example, see Daniel A. Briley and Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, “Comparing the Developmental Genetics of Cognition and Personality Over the Life Span,” Journal of Personality (2015): 1–14.

  150 years ago: Timothy J. Hatton and Bernice E. Bray, “Long Run Trends in the Heights of European Men, 19th–20th Centuries,” Economics and Human Biology 8 (2010): 405–13.

  average is five feet ten inches: Alison Moody, “Adult Anthropometric Measures, Overweight and Obesity,” in Health Survey for England 2013, ed. Rachel Craig and Jennifer Mindell (London: Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2014).

  gain of more than six inches: Hatton, “Long Run Trends.” Yvonne Schonbeck et al., “The World’s Tallest Nation Has Stopped Growing Taller: The Height of Dutch Children from 1955 to 2009,” Pediatric Research 73 (2013): 371–77.

  honesty and generosity: See Eric Turkheimer, Erik Pettersson, and Erin E. Horn, “A Phenotypic Null Hypothesis for the Genetics of Personality,” Annual Review of Psychology 65 (2014): 515–40.

  Ditto for IQ: Richard E. Nisbett et al., “Intelligence: New Findings and Theoretical Developments,” American Psychologist 67 (2012): 130–59.

  enjoying the great outdoors: Niels G. Waller, David T. Lykken, and Auke Tellegen, “Occupational Interests, Leisure Time Interests, and Personality: Three Domains or One? Findings from the Minnesota Twin Registry.” In Assessing Individual Differences in Human Behavior: New Concepts, Methods, and Findings, ed. David John Lubinski and René V. Dawis (Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, 1995): 233–59.

  having a sweet tooth: Fiona M. Breen, Robert Plomin, and Jane Wardle, “Heritability of Food Preferences in Young Children,” Physiology & Behavior 88 (2006): 443–47.

  end up a chain-smoker: Gary E. Swan et al., “Smoking and Alcohol Consumption in Adult Male Twins: Genetic Heritability and Shared Environmental Influences,” Journal of Substance Abuse 2 (1990): 39–50.

  getting skin cancer: Paul Lichtenstein et al. “Environmental and Heritable Factors in the Causation of Cancer—Analyses of Cohorts of Twins from Sweden, Denmark, and Finland,” New England Journal of Medicine 343 (2000): 78–85.

  carry a tune: Elizabeth Theusch and Jane Gitschier, “Absolute Pitch Twin Study and Segregation Analysis,” Twin Research and Human Genetics 14 (2011): 173–78.

  dunk a basketball: Lisa M. Guth and Stephen M. Roth, “Genetic Influence and Athletic Performance,” Current Opinion in Pediatrics 25 (2013): 653–58.

  solve a quadratic equation: Bonamy Oliver et al., “A Twin Study of Teacher-Reported Mathematics Performance and Low Performance in 7-Year-Olds,” Journal of Educational Psychology 96 (2004): 504–17.

  “I could only swim breaststroke”: Chambliss, interview.

  “I had horribly bad coaches”: Chambliss, interview. The tremendous importance of teacher quality to trajectories of academic achievement is documented in Eric A. Hanushek, “Valuing Teachers: How Much Is a Good Teacher Worth?” Education Next 11 (2011), 40–45.

  researchers in London: Personal communication with Robert Plomin, June 21, 2015. For a review of heritability of personality traits, see Turkheimer, Pettersson, and Horn, “Phenotypic Null Hypothesis.” It’s worth noting that there are behavioral genetics studies that do not rely on twins, and also that heritability is a topic too complex to fully
summarize here. In particular, there are interactions between different genes, between genes and the environment, and epigenetic effects. Relatedly, there is an ongoing debate as to the proportion of environmental influence that can be attributed to parenting. Definitively teasing apart the effects of parenting from genetic heritage is difficult. Chiefly, this is because you can’t randomly swap human children to live with different parents. However, you can do exactly that with rat pups and their moms. You can, for example, randomly assign rat pups to grow up with very nurturing mothers or very negligent ones. Neurobiologist Michael Meaney has done exactly that, and he has found that nurturing rats—who lick and groom and nurse their pups more than average—raise pups who are less stressed when dealing with challenging situations. The effects last into adulthood, and in fact, rat pups who are born to low-lick moms but, within twenty-four hours of birth, are switched to be raised by high-lick moms, grow up to be high-lick moms themselves. See Darlene Francis, Josie Diorio, Dong Liu, and Michael J. Meaney, “Nongenomic Transmission Across Generations of Maternal Behavior and Stress Responses in the Rat,” Science 286 (1999): 1155–58.