Grit by Angela Duckworth
The nine and a half hours it took me to read Grit by Angela Duckworth is nine and a half hours of my life I’m never getting back. It all boils down to find something you are passionate about, have support from others, and it won’t hurt if you have plenty of money to do what you want. Really, just the “groundbreaking” news that if you love something, you’ll stick to it (until you no longer love it which isn’t necessarily a lack of grit, but it might be, maybe).
So much of the book is a humble brag. The author truly thinks a lot of herself. She is awesome, obviously, for many reasons including that she works 70 hours a week. I’m not sure stating that people who have grit and love what they do work more than those who don’t is a good selling point. Sounds more like ignoring your family and having no work-life balance to me.
She tells the story of the time she did a TED Talk and the preview with the people in charge went poorly. They basically told her she sucked and to try again. I am completely unsurprised the TED Talk preview went poorly. If it was anything like the book it was dry, boring, rambling, and peppered with meaningless buzzwords. After she gave her actual TED Talk she told her family they were only allowed to give her praise because, obviously, she is amazing.
In trying to determine if parenting style affects grit (spoiler alert: it mostly doesn’t), she used Steve Young’s parents as strict and a comedian from the UK’s parents as permissive. Her entire reason? Steve Young attended early morning seminary and was not allowed to drink or cuss (same as pretty much every active LDS kid) and the comedian was allowed to quit school (with a plan) and cuss. Both ended up successful and it turned out she was totally wrong about their parenting based only on those things (and parental support mattered more than anything).
The writing is really not good. She’s extremely repetitive (seriously, this could’ve been a pamphlet). Her storytelling abilities are lackluster. She never quite made the point I suspect she was trying to make. I am very sure she understands her own research on grit, but does not seem to have the skills to convey what she has learned very well.
Grit is easily the worst book I’ve read all year. Give this one a pass. Read a summary and save yourself a few hours of misery.
1 (out of 5) Stars
Books Read in 2023: 70
Pages Read in 2023: 22,424
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