Perseverance, Put Under a Microscope

 

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance  —  Angela Duckworth

Angela Duckworth's concept of grit — sustained passion and perseverance toward long-term goals — started life as an academic research program before it became a popular framework, and the book still carries traces of both. She defines her terms carefully and cites her data more consistently than most authors writing in this space, and the result reads like a research career translated for a general audience rather than a self-help book dressed up with footnotes.

The studies at West Point and the National Spelling Bee form the backbone of the argument, and Duckworth is appropriately cautious about what they can and can't demonstrate. She is also willing to complicate her own thesis — talent still matters, grit is not a substitute for opportunity — which sets the book apart from more single-minded entries in the genre.

The subsequent adoption of 'grit' as an educational policy tool has drawn real criticism for shifting the burden of systemic problems onto individual character, and it's worth holding that later debate alongside the book itself. On its own terms, it is a careful piece of applied psychology.

Get Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance from Amazon