# Angela Duckworth - Grit (Highlights)  ## Metadata **Review**:: [readwise.io](https://readwise.io/bookreview/61388063) **Source**:: #from/readwise #from/kindle **Zettel**:: #zettel/fleeting **Status**:: #x **Authors**:: [[Angela Duckworth]] **Full Title**:: Grit **Category**:: #books #readwise/books **Category Icon**:: 📚 **Highlighted**:: [[2026-06-20]] **Created**:: [[2026-06-20]] ## Highlights - First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction. ([Location 148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=148)) ^1025943066 - Outliers, Galton concluded, are remarkable in three ways: they demonstrate unusual “ability” in combination with exceptional “zeal” and “the capacity for hard labor.” ([Location 319](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=319)) ^1026256848 - The normal response to being puzzled about something is to say,“I’ll think about this later,” and then, in effect, forget about it. With Darwin, one feels that he deliberately did not engage in this kind of semi-willful forgetting. He kept all the questions alive at the back of his mind, ready to be retrieved when a relevant bit of data presented itself. ([Location 339](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=339)) ^1026256849 - The “naturalness bias” is a hidden prejudice against those who’ve achieved what they have because they worked for it, and a hidden preference for those whom we think arrived at their place in life because they’re naturally talented. ([Location 381](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=381)) ^1026256850 - By shining our spotlight on talent, we risk leaving everything else in the shadows. ([Location 477](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=477)) ^1026256851 - “Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence.” ([Location 535](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=535)) ^1026256852 - Greatness is many, many individual feats, and each of them is doable.” ([Location 561](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=561)) ^1026256853 - “For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking…. To call someone ‘divine’ means: ‘here there is no need to compete.’ ” ([Location 583](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=583)) ^1026256854 - Talent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort. Achievement is what happens when you take your acquired skills and use them. ([Location 620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=620)) ^1026889896 Achievement = talent x effort squared - Talent—how fast we improve in skill—absolutely matters. But effort factors into the calculations twice, not once. Effort builds skill. At the very same time, effort makes skill productive. ([Location 624](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=624)) ^1026889897 - It soon became clear that doing one thing better and better might be more satisfying than staying an amateur at many different things: ([Location 631](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=631)) ^1026889898 - But those who struggle early may learn it better: ([Location 668](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=668)) ^1026889899 - Or, in Allen’s snappier formulation, “Eighty percent of success in life is showing up.” ([Location 719](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=719)) ^1026889900 - consistency of effort over the long run is everything. ([Location 734](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=734)) ^1026889901 - With effort, talent becomes skill and, at the very same time, effort makes skill productive. ([Location 749](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=749)) ^1026889902 - Rather than intensity, what comes up again and again in their remarks is the idea of consistency over time. ([Location 893](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=893)) ^1026889903 - Grit is about holding the same top-level goal for a very long time. ([Location 993](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=993)) ^1026889904 - In contrast, a lack of grit can come from having less coherent goal structures. ([Location 995](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=995)) ^1026889905 - Third, you take a good hard look at the twenty goals you didn’t circle. These you avoid at all costs. They’re what distract you; they eat away time and energy, taking your eye from the goals that matter more. ([Location 1024](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=1024)) ^1026889906 - Any successful person has to decide what to do in part by deciding what not to do. ([Location 1039](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=1039)) ^1026889907 - But don’t beat your head against the wall attempting to follow through on something that is, merely, a means to a more important end. ([Location 1052](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=1052)) ^1026889908 - Indeed, giving up on lower-level goals is not only forgivable, it’s sometimes absolutely necessary. ([Location 1121](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B010MH9V3W&location=1121)) ^1026889909