4 ms·
I feel there is a common trait of extraordinary people that anyone can develop and it pays dividends. That trait is industriousness. When you listen to intervie
by MaximumYComb 6y ago
I feel there is a common trait of extraordinary people that anyone can develop and it pays dividends. That trait is industriousness. When you listen to interviews from successful people like Elon Musk all the way through to Arnold Schwarzenegger, they all talk about working hard.
Terry Toa almost failed the general exams at Princeton due to slacking off, and it was a valuable lesson for him. I don't care how gifted you are, you won't reach the top without working harder than others.
- ck425 6y agoI call bullshit on the idea that industriousness is entirely learned. You can definitely improve it but research shows a significant part of it is genetic.
- MaximumYComb 6y agoI guess my argument is that most people can learn to do a lot more work than they are. Not everyone can sustain 100+ hours per week but someone working 40 can probably get a 50% improvement. The most significant change in my life occured through simply working more hour and developing habits to make those hours efficient.
- adnzzzzZ 6y agoPersonality traits account for something like 5% of the variance when it comes to life outcomes. Their usefulness comes from mostly analyzing huge groups of people and their differences in behavior than to be used as an individual measure. Most people can become significantly more or less industrious if they try. The same goes for other traits. In fact, I would say that part of your experience in life is nudging yourself more to the opposite side of what you're genetically given, i.e. if you're too industrious and too disagreeable, learn to be less (it's not so good to be hyper-competitive and hyper-focused all the time).
- thundergolfer 6y agoLink to that research? I'm not familiar, and brief Googling indicates that "Learned Industriousness" is a thing.