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Comment by irjustin | Hacker News Reader

I disagree with the author's premise that you have "grit" only when it can be applied in any direction.

To me, "grit" requires adversity instead of simply overall breadth. It's quite easy for us humans to do something if everything is going well.

What about when it's not going well? Do we have enough to persevere through all times, including hard ones? Your startup is failing? Your research is yielding no fruit? You can't get that promotion even though you've tried 3 times in 3 years?

Pushing through adversity and continuing the grind in the face of simply giving up is better defined as "having grit".

The problem simply is, maybe it is all just a waste? But that's not having grit!

Under the author's premise, you should be trying 1000% at all areas of your life all the time. Unrealistic.

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I agree with you that grit means pushing through adversity.

Specifically in my life, I've pushed through adversity when I cared more about trying than I did about the outcome.

It's hard to quantify, but I've only recently enjoyed running. For years, I tried to run consistently and always gave up. Then, I moved to Sun Valley for a ski season. As the snow melted, I started running outside each morning. I looked forward to the cold air, the quiet mountains, the snow-capped scenery. Nothing changed in how I understood the importance of exercise. I just enjoyed getting outside more.

Reflecting on areas where I've been told I "showed grit," they've really been areas where I naturally was interested - regardless of the outcome.

Yes, grit is much more how much you stick to things you've chosen.

Consider two scenarios of a child playing who soccer:

Child 1 hates soccer, but is forced to play by their parents: I see no lack of grit in such a scenario if the child resists going to practices & games and pushes his parents to let him quit.

Child 2 likes soccer and wants to play. However, in their first game they play goalie and the team loses 3 to 0. If the child doubles down and decided to practice more, that is grit. If they get discourages and want to quit, that is a lack of grit.

Obviously there's still more to it than the relatively simple outline here, but it shouldn't be considered a universal ability to do any & everything or never abandon a project.

Right, is it grit to save your startup at the cost of your marriage? Life is all about tradeoffs.

Personally I think the ability to make appropriate effort / reward choices > "grit". Of course, to an investor, abandoning everything else in your life to focus on their investment is "grit".

Grit isn't about trading A for B. It's about trading off idleness and pain avoidance for effort.

Pain is temporary, different from destruction.

I've always viewed Grit through the lens of poverty and achievement, real achievement in the face of real adversity.

There isn't a single thing on his list that counts as grit (based on my understanding) except perhaps in some circumstances programming and networking, even that's with the caveat of using those two as a means to escape poverty. Most of this list are "nice to haves" and grit doesn't really apply:

Running, Lifting weights, Writing, Sticking to a diet, Developing a wake-up/go-to-bed schedule, Mindfulness, Reading, Networking, Music (piano), Baking, Cooking, Programming.

Grit is when everything has gone wrong, you're hosed and overwhelmed and the stakes are crucial and you get out of bed and "get at it" anyway. If you have even middle class parents to go home to... eh, then grit is mostly replaced by capital and calculated risk.

That definition would push people into local maximums, always continuing the grind towards the initial goal instead of stepping back and reassessing if the goal still makes sense. There has to be a balance between these actions.

Persevering through adversity doesn't mean ignore opportunity. It means when the most obvious desirable outcome is blocked by challenges hard or unforeseen, don't simply give up. It applies in many situations but its not a panacea.

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