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Grit Reading Order
Angela Duckworth's Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2016) is a work of popular psychology arguing that 'grit' — the combination of passion and sustained perseverance toward long-term goals — is a better predictor of success than IQ or talent, based on Duckworth's research with West Point cadets, spelling bee competitors, and National Teachers of the Year recipients.
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Grit
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Grit
Angela Duckworth·2016·The complete standalone book. No sequels; start and finish here.
Grit — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Duckworth's grit scale?
The Grit Scale is a ten-item questionnaire that Duckworth developed to measure an individual's level of grit — specifically their consistency of interests (how stable their long-term goals and passions are) and their perseverance of effort (how hard they work toward those goals despite setbacks). The scale has been used in research with diverse populations, from West Point cadets to children in underserved schools, and consistently predicts performance better than IQ or talent measures. The scale is freely available on Duckworth's website.
How does Grit relate to Outliers?
Duckworth and Gladwell are in dialogue: Gladwell's Outliers popularized the '10,000-hour rule' (derived from Anders Ericsson's research) and emphasized structural context as the source of extraordinary performance; Duckworth emphasizes the individual psychological traits — specifically grit — that allow people to accumulate those 10,000 hours in the first place. Duckworth's research suggests that the missing link in Gladwell's account is the question of why some people keep practicing when it gets hard and others don't.
Has Grit been criticized?
Yes — Grit has been criticized on methodological grounds by education researchers who argue that the grit scale measures the same construct as conscientiousness (one of the Big Five personality traits that psychologists have studied for decades) under a new name, and that the evidence for grit's predictive power above and beyond existing personality measures is weaker than Duckworth claims. Critics also argue that the book's implicit message — that people who fail to achieve their goals lack sufficient grit — shifts responsibility from structural inequities to individual character in potentially harmful ways.
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