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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”

#151

Post by ineedasername »

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…

Yes, grit is much more how much you stick to things you've chosen.

Consider two scenarios of a child playing who soccer:

Child 1 hates soccer, but is forced to play by their parents: I see no lack of grit in such a scenario if the child resists going to practices & games and pushes his parents to let him quit.

Child 2 likes soccer and wants to play. However, in their first game they play goalie and the team loses 3 to 0. If the child doubles down and decided to practice more, that is grit. If they get discourages and want to quit, that is a lack of grit.

Obviously there's still more to it than the relatively simple outline here, but it shouldn't be considered a universal ability to do any & everything or never abandon a project.

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

#152

Post by psychomugs »

klodolph wrote: post #140
mikekchar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a "rule of 3". You can be quite good at 3 things (give or take). One of them will probably be your job. One will probably be your relationships. You have time for 1 more. If you keep changing your mind about what that last one will be, then you will only be good at 2 things. There are ways to be good at only 1 thing as well.... or even 0...

I don’t quite agree with this. It depends on how often you change your mind about the third field, and what your standard for “quite good” is. If you put a few years of effort into a field and get to a high level of competence and productivity, that skill may stick with you for a long time, even if you fall out of practice. For example, let’s say that you play piano, and you push yourself to a new level of skill and…

I concur; I was AFK for a while (pursuing other hobbies, living abroad with no access to a full-sized keyboard) but picked it up, and improved beyond my prior capabilities, pretty quickly.

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

#153

Post by lisper »

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…

> It is impossible to be really good at everything

That's true, but it is possible to acquire "meta-skills" which make it easier to acquire new skills. Someone with good meta-skills, like the ability to focus, or the ability to quickly triage what things ought to be optimized, or even just knowing what one really wants out of life, can get a lot better at more things than someone without them.

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

#154

Post by jasonv »

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…

When I truly committed to my fitness goals, my work improved significantly. But I simplified the rest of my life. To some people my life looked really, really boring... to me, it was just right.

At the moment I'm doing too many things. By conventional measures, I'm doing notably well, especially given the present circumstances.

But I need to do a bit less to be even happier, and aligned with the levels of my commitments.

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

#155

Post by pradn »

unreal37 wrote: post #138
mardifoufs wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see how it could sound weird to the eyes of an American, but the only place where I think his statement would be incorrect is Western Europe. A part from that I'm confident that a majority of people around the world would very much like to either have been born in the US or give their children the opportunity to live there. At least where I'm originally from, emigration to the US is seen as an an incredibly desirab…

I don't think there is as much business opportunity in Western Europe due to taxes and regulations. This is why the US has given birth to the majority of big businesses in the world in the last 20 years. A lot of startups that started elsewhere, moved to the US to continue their growth. Europe might have some quality of life elements such as health care, vacation time, and regulations to protect citizens and workers.…

The US might be the best place to start a world-conquering multinational like Google or Facebook, but it's not the best place to live for general social mobility or for starting a small business. Small business startups play a lesser role in our economy than other Western European countries. (https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/think-w...)

The entrepreneurship rate has been declining in the US for the past few decades. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/201..., https://www.inc.com/magazine/201505/leigh-buchanan/the-vanis...)

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

#156

Post by badpun »

bitcurious wrote: post #116
badpun wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

This only means that, so far, he's only talking about giving most of his money away, not actually doing it. If he'd be doing it at any significant speed, we'd be seeing monthly/yearly drops in his net worth.

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

#157

Post by etse »

klodolph wrote: post #140
mikekchar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a "rule of 3". You can be quite good at 3 things (give or take). One of them will probably be your job. One will probably be your relationships. You have time for 1 more. If you keep changing your mind about what that last one will be, then you will only be good at 2 things. There are ways to be good at only 1 thing as well.... or even 0...

I don’t quite agree with this. It depends on how often you change your mind about the third field, and what your standard for “quite good” is. If you put a few years of effort into a field and get to a high level of competence and productivity, that skill may stick with you for a long time, even if you fall out of practice. For example, let’s say that you play piano, and you push yourself to a new level of skill and…

I've noticed trouble playing advanced pieces within a few days to a week of little to no practice. But I guess everyone's different.

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

#158

Post by AlwaysRock »

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…

It's frustrating that life is like a Sim's game. There are sliders that have to be managed and you can only keep so many full at once. Often one or more will dip to keep others full.

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

#159

Post by bittercynic »

yboris wrote: post #134

I've been more skeptical of Grit after reading this: A Skeptical Look at the Latest Educational Fad By Alfie Kohn https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/grit/ The gist of the argument is that grit may not be what we ought to aspire to sometimes. The justification for grit is circular. Why focus on just 1 thing as oppose to have several interests and activities? The author approaches the topic from perspective of raising c…

Some very valid criticism there, but it seems to assume the educators involved will be small-minded hacks who just want students to be compliant. I've had the misfortune to get to know some educators like that, but also many great teachers who genuinely use "grit" as a jumping off point to help students identify goals that are important to them and to then develop the ability to pursue that goal even if it is not the most fun thing to do sometimes.

For some students the satisfaction of sticking with a task through challenges and completing something difficult and meaningful is a revelation.

I don't think it's a bad thing to get high and play video games, but if that's the only way you know how to have fun you are missing out on something worthwhile.

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

#160

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

fs111 wrote: post #35

It is not important to work hard, it is important to be happy. Stop glorifying the act of working, please.

My happiness requires capital to implement and gaining capital requires working hard.

I'm fortunate that I'm able to work hard in a career and field that also brings me happiness, so that's a bonus.

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