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I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

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Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#111

Post by theironlily »

ardit33 wrote: post #8

It is impossible to be really good at everything.... when I optimized for work, my fitness goals went through the window. When I optimized to get a project done, my reading (books) went down as well. When I optimized for fitness (working out and soccer), my work and side projects started progressing slower. It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and onc…

or, you’re like me if you imagine yourself to be this person who’s good at all the things, and become exhausted just thinking about it...

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#113

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

pegasus wrote: post #60
pawelmurias wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro body building is built around taking insane amounts of roids which will get you caught during drug testing in pro soccer.

But then there's the discipline/scene of natural bodybuilding, where no steroids are used.

You also need tons of work on top of steroids to bodybuilding. Steroids by themselves don’t get you big. you can all the anabolics in the world and remain farT.

All these examples are very poor, bending reality to prove cliche folk wisdom, it’s actually kinda funny.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#114

Post by ryanwaggoner »

koheripbal wrote: post #97
doublesCs wrote: post #38

I have learned the same thing about myself: I am (relatively) successful not because my grit allowed me to keep doing something which I disliked but were rewarded, but because the things I enjoy doing are things which are valued by our society. I realized this after reading the following Warren Buffet quote[1]: "I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependen…

...and that's why he also said on Monday: "If you took someone and asked them, without them knowing whether they'd be born boy or girl, black or white, with or without any relevant talent, or to rich or poor parents, and asked them when and where they'd like to be born. They'd answer, 'The US, in modern times'. There is no place on Earth, and no time in history, that a person can make the most of their talents, as to…

There’s a subtle issue with that quote: one of the predicates is “with or without any relevant talent”, but the answer of the modern US seems to assume talent that one can make the most of.

Why not pick a modern country with a better social safety net, lower inequality, and greater economic and class mobility?

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#115

Post by lonelappde »

koheripbal wrote: post #97
doublesCs wrote: post #38

I have learned the same thing about myself: I am (relatively) successful not because my grit allowed me to keep doing something which I disliked but were rewarded, but because the things I enjoy doing are things which are valued by our society. I realized this after reading the following Warren Buffet quote[1]: "I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependen…

...and that's why he also said on Monday: "If you took someone and asked them, without them knowing whether they'd be born boy or girl, black or white, with or without any relevant talent, or to rich or poor parents, and asked them when and where they'd like to be born. They'd answer, 'The US, in modern times'. There is no place on Earth, and no time in history, that a person can make the most of their talents, as to…

The problem with the that quote is that "it's better now than before" is used my large political movements to justify cancelling the effort that got us here, and letting us backslide.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#116

Post by bitcurious »

badpun wrote: post #108
wegs wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think he's a parasite? He seems to live a modest life, and work very hard to make the economy work more efficiently. He's giving almost all of his money to philanthropic causes, and seems to campaign for all the right causes. He maintains a pretty low profile for his level of success (he doesn't even support philanthropy through his own family foundation; he went with Gates, since he thought they'd do a be…

> He's giving almost all of his money to philanthropic causes His current net worth is $70b, for your statement to be true he would have to give away trillions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge

One can be running a marathon and still have 40km left to run.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#117

Post by ChefboyOG »

ardit33 wrote: post #8

It is impossible to be really good at everything.... when I optimized for work, my fitness goals went through the window. When I optimized to get a project done, my reading (books) went down as well. When I optimized for fitness (working out and soccer), my work and side projects started progressing slower. It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and onc…

Anecdotally, I find this to be spot on. One thing I'll add that has been important for me is identifying what "maintenance mode" looks like for different areas. For instance, I'm in "ambitious project phase", so I put some upfront work into figuring out a somewhat mindless 30-60 minute daily fitness routine, what a maintenance amount of socializing looks like, etc. When I was younger, I was very bad at establishing this baseline for things that weren't as easily quantifiable (like fitness) and it led to some stressful times.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#118

Post by tonyarkles »

toyg wrote: post #96
nmfisher wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you hit the nail on the head. It's good advice, particularly if you're someone with a short attention span who's constantly jumping from project to project. Nowadays, it's so easy to see just how far the talent pool is across the globe. You see the awesome cello player on Instagram, the amazing 3D games artist on Twitter, the world class gymnast on TikTok. You get so excited and inspired, and naturally, you w…

Indeed. Also, nobody posts their failures online. You only see success, and the path to that success is hidden or even misrepresented (“I made this in an afternoon!” ... and 5 years working 8h/day on the necessary skills).

I've started to make a conscious effort to post about my failures on Twitter specifically to help address that a bit, especially when they're hilariously bad (e.g. crashing a model airplane 3 seconds into its flight). Naturally, I've been failing at doing this consistently :)

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#119

Post by lonelappde »

zxcmx wrote: post #25
irjustin wrote: post #7

I disagree with the author's premise that you have "grit" only when it can be applied in any direction. To me, "grit" requires adversity instead of simply overall breadth. It's quite easy for us humans to do something if everything is going well. What about when it's not going well? Do we have enough to persevere through all times, including hard ones? Your startup is failing? Your research is yielding no fruit? You…

Right, is it grit to save your startup at the cost of your marriage? Life is all about tradeoffs. Personally I think the ability to make appropriate effort / reward choices > "grit". Of course, to an investor, abandoning everything else in your life to focus on their investment is "grit".

Grit isn't about trading A for B. It's about trading off idleness and pain avoidance for effort.

Pain is temporary, different from destruction.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#120

Post by yaitsyaboi »

koheripbal wrote: post #97
doublesCs wrote: post #38

I have learned the same thing about myself: I am (relatively) successful not because my grit allowed me to keep doing something which I disliked but were rewarded, but because the things I enjoy doing are things which are valued by our society. I realized this after reading the following Warren Buffet quote[1]: "I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependen…

...and that's why he also said on Monday: "If you took someone and asked them, without them knowing whether they'd be born boy or girl, black or white, with or without any relevant talent, or to rich or poor parents, and asked them when and where they'd like to be born. They'd answer, 'The US, in modern times'. There is no place on Earth, and no time in history, that a person can make the most of their talents, as to…

That sounds like a very mid 20th century POV. Which I totally get for Buffett.

Most rankings of social mobility put the US outside the top 20. The highs are higher here, but the path to get there, especially from the bottom 10%, is more difficult than almost any country we consider a peer.

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