There is no such thing as Grit

Yeah, it doesn't take a genius to tell people what they want to hear. But first you have to repackage the hard-to-spell Big Five personality trait Conscientiousness into something memorable ("Grit"). Then you can lie and tell people that Grit can be increased somehow, by parents, educators, yourself. And of course, you can lie and tell them that IQ doesn't matter.


TRUTH: IQ is hugely more predictive of life success than "Grit." "Grit" is just Conscientiousness. Conscientiousness is a substantially biologically-based and stable trait. There are no interventions known to increase Conscientiousness (with perhaps the exception of stimulant medication in ADHD children).

Jordan Peterson, Ph.D., Quora

"By the way, there is also no such thing as "grit," despite what Angela Duckworth says. Grit is conscientiousness, plain and simple (although probably more the industrious side than the orderly side). All Duckworth and her compatriots did was fail to notice that they had re-invented a very well documented phenomena, that already had a name (and, when they did notice it, failed to produce the appropriate mea culpas. Not one of psychology's brighter moments). A physicists who "re-discovered" iron and named it melignite or something equivalent would be immediately revealed as ignorant or manipulative (or, more likely, as ignorant and manipulative), and then taunted out of the field. Duckworth? She received a MacArthur Genius grant for her trouble."