Book Review: “Grit” by Angela Duckworth
Great insight but lost in an ocean of words
In a nutshell, the book contains profound advice, insight and tools for developing grit — a.k.a. sticking with something and becoming exceptional at it. Although, this gem is wrapped in a slow-moving text.
What do I mean?
It almost seems like the editor forced Angela to flesh out the manuscript purely for the purpose of producing a thicker book spine. The word count feels forced. And the (truly great) advice is like treasure that you have to dig up from amongst buckets of words. I would have enjoyed it much more if it were more concise and had better flow.
Why do I think this?
Firstly, I like reading books and usually go through them pretty quickly –anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. Grit took me almost a year to read. Secondly, I always underline great hints and make a lot of notes when reading nonfiction. In this case, I have pages filled with notes and lines, followed by many clean pages, and so on and so forth. This means that each chapter has chunks of useful info, followed by text that doesn’t add any further value to what was already said, and feels like it is repeating itself, only using different words.
I’m so glad now that I scribbled in the book and underlined the passages that are particularly useful, because I’m able to skip all that doesn’t apply.
Having said that, the advice contained within is priceless — especially for someone who, like me, has dipped their toes into many career paths and has had trouble focusing on a single métier. The book gave me the tools and reason to pursue my chosen profession in writing, and explore it to its fullest capacity. In hindsight, I wish I could have read this book when I was much younger; it could have saved me years of turmoil and uncertainty.
The overarching idea of the book is that it is passion + perseverance, not intellect, that guarantees success and fulfilment in one’s chosen career. The book also dispels the myth that falling in love with a career should be sudden and swift. Often, it starts with only an interest.
A few gems that spoke to me:
“Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare”
“An expert has the accumulated knowledge and skill to see what, I, a beginner, cannot”
“Purpose — the intention to contribute to the well-being of others”
“Experts do it all over again, and again, and again. Until they have finally mastered what they set out to do. Until what was a struggle before is now fluent and flawless. Until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence”
Overall, Grit is very well researched and approaches the topic from all angles. I highly recommend it, although, if I were you, I’d look for a summarised version of it — if one exists.
P.S.
I think the book is a priceless tool for parents who want to raise their children to make a meaningful contribution to society. This isn’t clear from the book’s marketing perspective. However, in my opinion it has a well-earned place on a shelf among how-to-parent books.
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