Angela Duckworth Quotes

The challenge of writing
Is to see your horribleness on the page
To see your terribleness
And then go to bed.
And wake up the next day
And take that horribleness and terribleness,
And refine it,
And make it not so terrible and not so horrible.
And then to go to bed again.
And come the next day,
And refine it a little bit more,
And make it not so bad.
And then to go to bed again.
And do it again the next day,
And make it maybe average,
And then one more time,
If you're lucky,
Maybe you get to good,
And if you've done that,
That's a success.

optimists habitually search for temporary and specific causes of their suffering, whereas pessimists assume permanent and pervasive causes are to blame.

interests are not discovered through introspection. Instead, interests are triggered by interactions with the outside world.

...interests are not discovered through introspection. Instead, interests are triggered by interactions with the outside world. The process of interest discovery can be messy, serendipitous, and inefficient. This is because you can't really predict with certainty what will capture your attention and what won't...Without experimenting, you can't figure out which interests will stick, and which won't.

When you keep searching for ways to change your situation for the better, you stand a chance of finding them. When you stop searching, assuming they can't be found, you guarantee they won

A girl who is told repeatedly that she's no genius ends up winning an award for being one.

My longitudinal studies show these three virtue clusters predict different outcomes. For academic achievement, including stellar report card grades, the cluster containing grit is the most predictive. But for positive social functioning, including how many friends you have, interpersonal character is more important. And for a positive, independent posture toward learning, intellectual virtue trumps the others.

what we accomplish in the marathon of life depends tremendously on our grit — our passion and perseverance for long-term goals.

Without effort, your talent is nothing more than your unmet potential. Without effort, your skill is nothing more than what you could have done but didn't. With effort, talent becomes skill and, at the very same time, effort makes skill productive.

Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.

without directly experiencing the connection between effort and reward, animals, whether they're rats or people, default to laziness.

My mission is to utilize my passion for computer science and machine learning to benefit society at large, while serving as an example of success that will shape the future of our society.

These stories of grit are one kind of data, and they complement the more systematic, quantitative studies I've done in places like West Point and the National Spelling Bee. Together, the research reveals the psychological assets that mature paragons of grit have in common. There are four. They counter each of the buzz-killers listed above, and they tend to develop, over the years,

To be gritty is to resist complacency.

We change when we need to. Necessity is the mother of adaptation.