GRIT: Why passion and resilience are the secrets to success/Angela Duckworth: Review

In this book, Angela Duckworth really dives into her research about grit, a term I understand to be very similar to perseverance, but the kind of "I will keep fighting until I reach my goal no matter what," sort of perseverance. 

The book has some dense materials, and it took me good 3 months to read it because there were many re-readings required to fully comprehend what she was saying. In fact, it required some grit to read the book until the very last page. 

It is an extremely powerful book, but at least I didn't think it was an easy read. 

This book and Outliers go hand in hand, but I'd say this book is a little more scientific and made me feel like I was reading a research paper. 

A few main points she talks about:

- Society likes to associate good performance with talent when in reality, effort counts more with the overall outcome 

- Have a life philosophy which is supported by different levels of goals 

- Grit grows in the order of interest, practice, purpose, and hope 

- There is still more research that needs to be done in order to fully understand "grit," but supportive parenting and culture can help build grit in a person 

The TED talk I've attached to this page will give you an introduction to how grit works, but the book has so much material compared to the lecture. 

I really liked this equation Duckworth mentions in the book, how talent is important, but effort counts twice. 

talent x effort =skill                skill x effort = achievement

therefore, 

talent x effort^2 = achievement 

I thought that was pretty powerful. 

Writing this post made me realize there is still a lot I didn't understand about the book so I'm thinking I need to reread it again. 

Thank you always!