Grit(106)

between the extremes: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Adam M. Grant and Barry Schwartz, “Too Much of a Good Thing: The Challenge and Opportunity of the Inverted U,” Perspectives in Psychological Science 6 (2011): 61–76.

wanted to be grittier: This data was collected in 2015 and is not yet published.

honesty trumps all: Geoffrey P. Goodwin, Jared Piazza, and Paul Rozin, “Moral Character Predominates in Person Perception and Evaluation,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 106 (2014): 148–68.

character is plural: I wish I could take credit for the expression, “character is plural.” I cannot. Many others have made the same observation, including Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman in Character Strengths and Virtues (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 10.

dimensions of character: Daeun Park et al., “A Tripartite Taxonomy of Character: Evidence for Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Intellectual Competencies in Youth,” (manuscript under review, 2015). Note that these same three virtue clusters correspond, roughly, to the Big Five personality dimensions of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience.

tend to be self-controlled: I see self-control as related but distinct from grit. You can be self-controlled about a goal that is not your top-level, ultimate concern. And self-control isn’t directly related to overcoming setbacks and failures. However, both grit and self-control are about achieving valued goals. See Angela L. Duckworth and James J. Gross, “Self-Control and Grit: Related but Separable Determinants of Success,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 23 (2014): 319–25. I personally believe that self-control is an extraordinarily important virtue, and to learn more about strategies that facilitate it and their benefits, see Walter Mischel, The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control (New York: Little, Brown, 2014), and Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (New York: Penguin, 2011).

“resume virtues”; “eulogy virtues”: David Brooks, The Road to Character (New York: Random House, 2015), xi.

world of ideas: I haven’t touched upon creativity in this book. In many endeavors, creativity is absolutely essential, and I direct the interested reader to Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (New York: Perigee Books, 2015).

predict different outcomes: Park et al., “Tripartite Taxonomy.”

“nothing was coming out”: “Advice on Writing from the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates,” Atlantic video, September 27, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/09/advice-on-writing-from-i-the-atlantic-i-s-ta-nehisi-coates/280025.

“writing is failure”: “Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015 MacArthur Fellow,” MacArthur Foundation video, posted September 28, 2015, https://www.macfound.org/fellows/931.