Synthesis of David Boies “Desirable Difficulties” and Angela Lee Duckworth’s “The Significance of Grit."
These days nobody wants to struggle in life, in fact, most people may be inclined to give up when things don’t go their way. I now understand that “desirable difficulties” are related to the concept of grit in the article "Significance of Grit," because life is difficult and people who are persistent have grit. The two concepts go hand and hand. The first author David Boies points out that making some things more difficult is desirable. This concept is somewhat like when Angela Lee Duckworth argues in her article “The Significance of Grit," that grit should be part of resilience, matters happen that cause life to be more difficult, and you must persevere through the tough times to prevail and acquire better skills at whatever you’re doing.
Although seemingly ridiculous, in the book “David and Goliath” chapter 4, David Boies explores the idea of "desirable difficulties" by posing the question: "Would you wish Dyslexia on your child?" Crazy right? Surprisingly the answer should be “No” however this concept of "desirable difficulties" created by Robert and Elizabeth Bjork, two psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggest otherwise. Personally, I would never wish Dyslexia on mine or anyone else’s children, although I completely understand the concept of “being knocked down and then got back up to dust yourself off” and “No pain, no gain.” Because it truly is a hard knock life.
For example, Angela Lee Duckworth from the University of Pennsylvania, who had been conducting innovative studies (for the past 11 years) on "Grit," the quality that allows people to work uncompromisingly and stick to their passions and long-term goals. We learn that in her interview with "Educational Leadership," [ Duckworth describes what her research has shown about the relationship between "Grit" and achievement. on the importance of helping students develop grit and other non-cognitive traits.(1)] I believe that when we incorporate teaching students how to develop traits like having “grit” in our public schools, eventually our citizens as a whole will become more prosperous in all areas of life.
In her story,
Various psychologists define grit in different various ways. According to Duckworth et al (2007), they define grit as the perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Scientists and researchers while integrating biographical writings of the world famous figures have derived the same conclusions on the individuals who are known to be high achievers in the world and the connections their achievement have to grit.
Duckworth explains people with grit are those who confront failure and don’t give up easily. She did research on the U.S Army to determine their grit. She realize, if the soldiers had a though of mind of grit they showed good results in their military performance on summer camp. Also, there was a fascinating research she had with taxi drivers relating to grit. Commonly, one would think that taxi drivers make more money in a rainy day. But what she found out was that taxi drivers work less hours in rainy days because they would make the sufficient money they needed for the day. In similarity, she compare this research to talent and grit. One with talent will spent less time on something so they stop immediately once they have proficient. In the other hand, someone with grit will spend longer time and get more out of it.
Grit, what is this? Is it success, is it failure, or is it talent? As Angela Duckworth said “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in and day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Grit is a combination of strength, persistence, focus, and dedication that helps a person to maintain the optimism and discipline needed to persevere in their goals even if they are head to head with failure. Grit does not depend on talent, IQ, or success. Grit is the ability to fail and learn from your mistake, in order to come back next
In the article of The Limits Of “Grit” by David Denby there are plenty of interesting ideas that are brought up. One of the ideas that Denby brings up is teaching grit in schools. Denby thinks the idea of teaching grit should be taught it all schools. One point that Denby brings up is when he says the following “ If we suffer from a grit deficiency in this country, it shows up in our unwillingness to face what is obviously true—that poverty is the real cause of failing schools.” ( Denby,4) Denby explains that poverty is the real reason why some
When the word desirable difficulty comes into mind I think for struggles and overcoming those struggles. By struggling you gain advantages, what is learned out of something that is necessary is more valuable than just learning it without struggling. In order to overcome that struggle you need to be a disagreeable person. Rather than following what others do and coloring in the lines you need to be independent and move outside the lines. Those who are disagreeable bring great change because they don’t follow the norm. If you’re not willing to break out the norm then there are little chances of discovering new ideas. Difficulties are made easier when you are a disagreeable person. “The responsible man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the word to himself. Therefor all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” You tend not to care about what society thinks for you or your ideas. You don’t follow the list of aspects that society has laid out for you, rather you go your own way. Gladwell explains how dyslexics are comfortable with failure. They have failed so many times and have struggled that when failure does happen it’s not alarming. You should be comfortable with failure and struggling. Failure and struggle help build you as an
Throughout Grit, Angela Duckworth argues that grit is the single most important factor in determining success of an individual. She splits the argument into three parts: the concept of grit and why it matters, the proper use and understanding of the goal hierarchy, and how an individual can develop grit. Duckworth’s argument is important because it replaces the traditional viewpoint of success being determined by talent to one which sees success as a result of passion and perseverance.
In Chapter 9 of Grit, Angela Duckworth argues that a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset, leads to more success. She shows that a growth mindset leads to a more optimistic outlook on failures, which further leads to perseverance and the ability to take on new challenges without giving up. Using additional research, I agree with Duckworth’s claim that a growth mindset makes an individual more successful because a growth mindset transforms obstacles into learning opportunities and fosters hope, which are essential skills to overcoming failures and becoming successful.
Angela developed a short questionnaire called the “Grit Test”. One must answer the short questions and the results show where you stand on the scale of Grit. She found that the Grit score of someone predicts the level of the achievement they can have under difficult or challenging circumstances. She tried this test at the United States Military Academy, where she had the cadets take the short test and found that the ones who had the highest Grit were the ones who were most likely to go the through with the stringent training program they went through called the “Beast Barracks”. Not the ones with the highest IQ’s, the most talent, or even the most athletic. She tried again in the Scripp’s Spelling Bee, and saw that those who were most intelligent but had a low Grit score were most likely to not make it as far as those who had a higher score. She declared that those who had higher Grit were more likely to pass because they studied harder and with determination. In all of those, it seemed that Grit was the factor that made the students stand out when it came to success, once again proving high IQ’s always being better wrong. Logos is a bit short, as many times in other articles, Grit is simply a glossed over idea that has been thought of up before. In other places, such as a physics teacher and his students in a school in Australia, he saw that Grit had little to do with
Most people subscribe to the belief that Paul Tough refers to the cognitive hypothesis that suggests that success depends primarily on cognitive skills. They argue that intelligence is measured based on IQ tests which include the ability to recognize letters, words, detect patterns, and calculate. They say that the simplest way to acquire and develop skills is through practicing them continuously. Children should also begin practicing as early as possible to nurture skills. However, in the book titled “How Children Succeed,” Tough introduces the character hypothesis which explains that non–cognitive skills such as self-control, curiosity, self-confidence, conscientiousness, and grit are crucial to achieving success than sheer brainpower or cognitive skills (Tough 49). To justify his argument, he uses research findings from psychologists and neuroscientists. They say that character is developed by encountering with failure and overcoming it. The hidden power of character explains why some children perform well while others fail. However, I say that linking grit and character is pervasive and unfair to kids from poor backgrounds; particularly when the author states that academic proficiency is not a determinant of future success. The big point on Tough’s main arguments is that children succeed with character and not test scores.
Have you ever set a long-term goal and were so determined to meet that goal no matter what happened? Angela Duckworth states, “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in and day out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years and working really hard to make that future a reality”. Sticking with a long-term goal, when you seem to have hit every bump in the road possible means that you contain grit. In class, we discussed how talent is inversely related to grit. Angela Duckworth did a study and made high school students take her grit test. In this test, she realized that the more grit that the student possessed, the higher chance that student would graduate.
The idea of grit is to be used to help students improve on goals they’ve made, but in the The Downside of Grit by Alfie Kohn he would argue that somethings are better left alone instead of trying to pursue them and achieving them with little success. Kohn claims that grit can be counterproductive because anyone could be continuing something that doesn’t make them content with the outcome. He also discusses about how people with grit could experience issues with psychological health when you try over and over again and end up with continuous failure. It would be better to find an alternative pathway that would cause less stress, and end with success. Another argument that Kohn has is against the reliability of the research done on grit doesn’t rely on evidence. It
Hook: In her article “MacArthur 'Genius' Angela Duckworth Responds To A New Critique Of Grit,” Anya Kamenetz discusses assistant professor of psychology Marcus Crede’s assessment of grit. Which he is effectively, comparatively the assistant psychologist is stating and telling the audience that grit is nothing new and has never been anything new. As a result he is conveying the readers to see his point of view , and his criticism towards duckworth's grit scale. As well how duckworths describing her traits on the grit scale. Although Duckworth admits to the charge of badly describing the size of her outcomes.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives many different definitions defining the word “grit”. A definition that caught my attention was “unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger” .It gave me a personal reference as to reaching a goal, you have to be faced with challenges that you’ll need to conquer with grit being included. In Angela Lee Duckworth’s TED Talk, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” she claims that having students being pushed to the max is the only way to see the full extent of grit, and I agree with Duckworth. I was able to demonstrate grit on becoming a better basketball play after not making the team my sophomore year of high school. Ever since I was disappointed in my results of not making the team, I had told myself this wasn’t going to mean I was done playing basketball .I gave myself perseverance in knowing I could make it next year with motivation.
Growing up, children are often told the common phrase, “If at first, you don't succeed try, try, again…” (W.C. Fields). This is used to teach children to never give up, a way to ensure that they can triumph over adversity and grow upon their grit. Although, people usually forget the second part of that quote, “…Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” (W.C. Fields). The second half of the quote is a full contrast to the first half, this is telling children to give up and just stop trying. Those who give up are often thought of having no grit. Some wonder if grit is necessary for society, to be more specific if grit is something that should be taught in school, I feel that it should not. Students switch interests so often that it is hard for them to stick with the same interests as time passes. When a student is enthused about a subject, I see grit as a way for one to express their interests. When one’s passion is put to the test and it feels like there is no progress or no more enjoyment left in that passion is when true grit is shown. Those who support the idea of grit, like Angela Duckworth, believe that grit is a big factor in how one succeeds.
Angela Duckworth was a seventh-grade teacher in New York Public Schools, and became a psychologist. She is the author of the TED Talk “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance”. The main point of this TED Talk is that having grit is what will help you to succeed in life. She asks herself, who is successful and why, and she concluded that people who succeed in life are those who have grit, which is the passion and perseverance to achieve every long-term goal. She emphasized that talent or social intelligent is not what will lead you to succeed, but the key that will help you to succeed are passion and perseverance. Those who can stick with their future goals for years and work hard to make that future a reality is more likely to succeed. Moreover, she explained in her speech that growth mindset is great for building grit, which based on the TED Talk people who have a growth mindset are those people that do not believe that failure is a permanent condition. In my point of view those people who have growth mindset are more likely to be successful in life.