Book Review: ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth

Book Review: ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth
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Updated 08 June 2024
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Book Review: ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth

Book Review: ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth

In “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” Angela Duckworth challenges the idea that natural talent is the sole recipe for success.

Duckworth argues that a powerful combination of passion and perseverance, which she terms “grit,” is a far more reliable predictor of achievement.

Duckworth delves into the concept of grit through captivating stories of West Point cadets, spelling bee champions, and everyday individuals. She weaves together research and personal anecdotes to illustrate the importance of long-term goals, sustained effort, and bouncing back from setbacks.

Grit is not just about blind hard work; it is about working smart and strategically. Duckworth emphasizes the power of deliberate practice, a focused approach to honing your skills and mastering a craft.

The book offers a refreshing and empowering perspective on the path to success. It acknowledges the role of talent but underscores the significance of dedication and a never-give-up attitude.

“Grit” is a motivating read that will inspire you to identify your passions and pursue them with unwavering determination.

Duckworth also equips readers with tools to cultivate their own grit. She provides a self-assessment quiz to measure your current level and offers practical strategies to develop a growth mindset and embrace challenges.

“Grit” is more like a call to action. It leaves you with a newfound appreciation for the power of human potential and the transformative potential of hard work.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Organic Line’

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Updated 23 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Organic Line’

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  • Once recognized, however, the line has seismic repercussions for rethinking foundational concepts such as mark, limit, surface, and edge

Author: IRENE SMALL

What would it mean to treat an interval of space as a line, thus drawing an empty void into a constellation of art and meaning-laden things? In this book, Irene Small elucidates the signal discovery of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark in 1954: a fissure of space between material elements that Clark called “the organic line.”

For much of the history of art, Clark’s discovery, much like the organic line, has escaped legibility. Once recognized, however, the line has seismic repercussions for rethinking foundational concepts such as mark, limit, surface, and edge.

 


What We Are Reading Today: Citizen Marx by Bruno Leipold

What We Are Reading Today: Citizen Marx by Bruno Leipold
Updated 22 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: Citizen Marx by Bruno Leipold

What We Are Reading Today: Citizen Marx by Bruno Leipold

In Citizen Marx, Bruno Leipold argues that, contrary to certain interpretive commonplaces, Karl Marx’s thinking was deeply informed by republicanism.
Marx’s relation to republicanism changed over the course of his life, but its complex influence on his thought cannot be reduced to wholesale adoption or rejection. Challenging common depictions of Marx that downplay or ignore his commitment to politics, democracy, and freedom, Leipold shows that Marx viewed democratic political institutions as crucial to overcoming the social unfreedom and domination of capitalism.
One of Marx’s principal political values, Leipold contends, was a republican conception of freedom, according to which one is unfree when subjected to arbitrary power.
Placing Marx’s republican communism in its historical context—but not consigning him to that context—Leipold traces Marx’s shifting relationship to republicanism across three broad periods. One of Marx’s great contributions, Leipold suggests, was to place politics (and especially democratic politics) at the heart of socialism.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Elusive Cures’ by Nicole Rust

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Elusive Cures’ by Nicole Rust
Updated 21 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Elusive Cures’ by Nicole Rust

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Elusive Cures’ by Nicole Rust

Brain research has been accelerating rapidly in recent decades, but the translation of our many discoveries into treatments and cures for brain disorders has not happened as many expected. 

We do not have cures for the vast majority of brain illnesses, from Alzheimer’s to depression, and many medications we do have to treat the brain are derived from drugs produced in the 1950s—before we knew much about the brain at all. 

Tackling brain disorders is clearly one of the biggest challenges facing humanity today. What will it take to overcome it? Nicole Rust takes readers along on her personal journey to answer this question.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Atlas of Birds’ by Mike Unwin

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Atlas of Birds’ by Mike Unwin
Updated 20 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Atlas of Birds’ by Mike Unwin

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Atlas of Birds’ by Mike Unwin

“The Atlas of Birds” captures the breathtaking diversity of birds, and illuminates their conservation status around the world.

Full-color maps show where birds are found, both by country and terrain, and reveal how an astounding variety of behavioral adaptations—from flight and feeding to nest building and song—have enabled them to thrive in virtually every habitat on Earth.

Maps of individual journeys and global flyways chart the amazing phenomenon of bird migration, while bird classification is explained using maps for each order and many key families.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘When the Bombs Stopped’

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Updated 18 November 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘When the Bombs Stopped’

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  • Fifty years after the last sortie, residents of rural Cambodia are still coping with the unexploded ordnance that covers their land

Author: ERIN LIN

Over the course of the Vietnam War, the United States dropped 500,000 tonnes of bombs over Cambodia—more than the combined weight of every man, woman, and child in the country.

What began as a secret CIA infiltration of Laos eventually expanded into Cambodia and escalated into a nine-year war over the Ho Chi Minh trail fought primarily with bombs.

Fifty years after the last sortie, residents of rural Cambodia are still coping with the unexploded ordnance that covers their land. In “When the Bombs Stopped,” Erin Lin investigates the consequences of the US bombing campaign across post conflict Cambodia.