Dr. Angela Duckworth

At the time, they decided that only men were worthy of study, but they would literally put them on a treadmill.

They call it the treadmill test.

And they...

you know, get off when you want to, but see how long you can stay on.

And of course they make it really fast.

And so it's really hard and it's really challenging.

So there are a lot of people who are like, okay, I may not be the most talented, but put me on that treadmill and watch what I can do because I will not give up because I will try harder.

So, um,

I do think there is this separation that you don't have to have a PhD to understand between talent, the rate at which you get better at something when you try, and effort, which is, okay, how hard and how long are you going to try?

So I think effort counts twice.

Sure, talent counts, but I think effort counts twice.

To me, skill is kind of barren unless you apply it, right?

So what are you going to do with your skill?

Well, you need effort to sort of unlock your skill and turn it into actual achievement.

And so when you write this all down and if you want, there's like math behind it.

But to me, of course, talent figures into the equation.

But effort counts twice because one, it unlocks that talent and turns it into skill.

And two, it unlocks that skill and turns it into actual tangible achievements.

So when you look at people who are great at what they do, and it actually doesn't have to be that they're a, you know, a physicist.

This is true of athletes.