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Comment by personjerry | Hacker News Reader

> You look for grit.

It always seems to me that "grit" and "stubbornness" are similar, and being stubborn to the degree of being unable to give up a hopeless dream seems to be a problem for startup founders. How do you distinguish between these very similar traits when you interview someone?

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That's the crux of what makes this stuff hard. Where do you draw the line between being flexible in decision making AND unyielding in your vision?

IMO, "grit" is about working the problem and not giving up but potentially changing tactics, while "stubbornness" is about keeping the same tactics even if the problem changes.

The difference is in adaptation: when challenged with new perspective / data, do they incorporate it into their vision or ignore the data?

Founders/management/whoever need to maintain the ability to vet the value of the new perspective / data.

To use a silly example: A flower buying website might do best to avoid spending time/money crafting promotions aimed at single biker dudes who live life off the grid. Even though there is possibly large group of folks that are under represented in the rebel luddite flower purchaser demographics.

This is exactly what I was thinking the other day when I saw a tweet from Jessica Livingston saying: "Denial is the silent killer of startups." How do you know if you are persevering, or if you're in denial?

Ask someone with fresh eyes.

stubbornness seems to imply rigidity; you can exhibit grit while still being flexible and adapting to changes

pg said something about the different between grit and stubbornness here http://paulgraham.com/determination.html.

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