Quitting is sometimes the right decision. Here's how to know when to walk away
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Why does society view quitting as failure and how does the episode reframe it?
Hi there, I'm Brittany Luce, and not to brag, but I host a really fabulous podcast. It's called It's Been a Minute. I love making it, and I think you'll love listening to it. Over the last year, hundreds of thousands of listeners have been tuning in, and I gotta say, if you haven't yet, you're missing out. Listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR today. You're listening
to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, it's Marielle. Raise your hand if you've heard one of these sayings. Don't be a quitter. Winners never quit and quitters never win. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. There's all this
stuff around quitting
that makes it seem cowardly. This is Annie Duke, a cognitive psychologist, a decision strategist, and a former professional poker player. She wrote a book called Quit, and she says we tend to think about quitting as a failure.
Even though it's not failure, if you're doing it in a situation where you ought to be walking away, that's a success. Because you've stopped
spinning your wheels or wasting your time, and you get to go do other things that you'll enjoy more or that bring more value to your life. But how do you know when it's one of those situations, when it is time to walk away? Or as Angela Duckworth puts it, when to grit and when to quit. Angela is a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. She pioneered academic research on grit, which she defines as a mix of passion and perseverance that allows people to achieve their long-term goals.
It has to be that sometimes it is better to quit. It's not that 100% of the time we should persist, right? Angela knows a mountain climber who has scaled some of the highest peaks in the world. And one of the things that he and other people like him have said is that one of the most important things to know as a mountaineer is when you should turn back from the summit before you've reached it. On this episode of Life Kit,
how to know when to quit something. That could be a career path, your pursuit of a particular goal, a relationship. It could be lots of things. We're gonna give you the tools to evaluate your goals and figure out what they're costing you and whether it's worth persisting.
The company behind Flock cameras sold itself as a boon for public safety. But these cameras have had another consequence, more surveillance. When you kind of give thousands of cops access to this very powerful system, they're going to touch the electric fence and see like what they can do. Is Flock making communities safer? Find this and more stories from the Indicator from Planet Money on the NPR app.
This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. Ten years ago, Colin Kaepernick took the knee during the national anthem, and it cost him his NFL career. He's rarely talked about it since. Now he tells the story of that decision and why he still trains every day to play.
But I am not at the point of accepting I will never step on a field again.
Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get Fresh Air.
When we were in the studio, Annie Duke, the cognitive psychologist, posed a question to me. Feel free to play along here. I
want you to imagine, what's a band, tell me a band that you like.
I said Olivia Dean, the neo-soul singer. So Annie tells me, imagine Olivia Dean is coming to town. She's doing an outdoor concert in Central Park.
What is Annie Duke’s definition of quitting as a success rather than a failure?
Do I want to go? Yeah. But then the day of the concert, I actually don't have a ticket yet, and there's a freak weather event. And it's like sleeting,
inhaling, icy rain, freezing cold. It's like 15 degrees out. It's so cold. And there's no cover. Like, they're not moving inside. It's still going to be outside. And I call you up, and I'm like, hey. I know you like Olivia Deen. I bought a ticket to go to this concert. I don't want to go because of the weather. But do you want my free ticket?
No. No. Now she says, imagine, same situation. Olivia Deen is coming to town. and doing an outdoor concert. But I did buy a ticket and it cost me 500 bucks. Are you still so sure that you're not going? No, I'd probably consider it more. Right. I'd probably be like, oh, well, I could wear like a snowsuit, I guess.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why does society view quitting as failure and how does the episode reframe it?
0:00–3:48
2
What is Annie Duke’s definition of quitting as a success rather than a failure?
3:48–5:27
3
How can you tell if it’s time to quit a goal, according to Angela Duckworth’s grit research?
5:27–11:02
4
What practical steps does the show suggest for setting a quit‑deadline?
11:02–18:33
5
How do you interrogate a goal – what questions should you ask yourself?
18:33–20:23