
The Calculus of Grit - Stwerner
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/08/19/the-calculus-of-grit/
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mathattack
I thought he summarized it accurately in the last paragraph.

"So rework, reference, release. Flow through the landscape of your own
strengths and weaknesses. Count to 10,000 rework hours as you walk. If you
aren’t seeing accelerating external results by hour 3300, stop and introspect.
That is the calculus of grit. It’s the exponential human psychology you need
for exponential times. Ignore everything else."

It took a lot of wording to get there though. :-)

He seems to be very good at summarizing many pop-theorists (Gladwell &
Friedman) and synthesizing an interesting core idea. My interpretation is, "It
takes time to get to the limit of well defined fields, but if it doesn't get
easier over time, you're on the wrong path." This rings true. Not everyone
that takes an introductory CS course finds it easy, but if the third or fourth
one is still awful instead of exciting, perhaps it's time to find a new major.
Same with music. Or Literature. The great ones put in the time, but it gets
easier. (& Perhaps that's why they can succeed!)

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quantumhobbit
I like Rao's writing. A lot of his new stuff is very interesting, but is he
ever going to finish The Gervas Principle?

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seagaia
Could someone summarize this concept? I found it a little hard to follow. Is
he saying that mapping what "intellectual spaces" (or something) you travel
through while developing some skill may help you figure out what you could be
good at or something?

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go37pi
I believe he is saying that traditional metrics of mastery such as the "10,000
hours" of work metric are incomplete because they are extrinsically defined
metrics. Venkatesh makes the point that except for a few well defined fields
such as mathematics or violin (fields with predictable boundedness), such
extrinsically defined metrics do not provide much useful information.

Therefore, using the analogy of relativity, Rao proposes a new metric of
mastery based on intrinsic metrics. Metrics that he believes may provide
insight as to whether you are truly improving if your work spans that of
multiple fields. These metrics function as axes for your journey through
"endeavor space". These axes are rework, referencing, and releasing. If you
are wondering whether you working with grit or wasting your time, a self
evaluation via these axes can help to tell you whether you are working towards
mastery or not.

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vgr
That's the gist of it, with one correction. The 10,000 hours bit is fine, the
missing detail is how you count to 10,000 when there are no convenient
external reference points. The true extrinsic variables are things like a
named discipline or degrees as indicators of experience.

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wcarss
I feel like he was saying (at the end) that people shouldn't work on things
they find hard.

Was he saying that? Because that seems silly.

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andrewflnr
I do think that part was not fully thought out. Some things are just hard,
even when they're within your strengths. I think what he really means is that
you shouldn't work on things that are hard in a certain way, and didn't
realize that only certain kinds of difficulty, those that result from wasting
energy on things you're not good at, are bad.

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szany
Has anyone read his book Tempo who can comment on it?

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Stwerner
I'm about half way through it, though I'm the one who submitted this post.
I've been reading since his first Gervais Principle post and really enjoy the
way he writes.

That being said Tempo is a lot lower level writing than most of the blog
posts, not that that's a bad thing. The book is very interesting, though I
need to make sure I am actually paying good attention to what I'm reading. If
you've read through the Gervais Principle and A Brief History of the
Corporation, and find yourself wanting a lot more, the book will give you a
lot.

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donnaware
is there a grithub site ?

