why you need grit

Jonah Lehrer: The Origins of Creative Insight & Why You Need Grit

Do we sometimes pay too high a price for our dreams? Or worse, pick the wrong ones to follow? I remember having many conversations like this while making all the gear for rock climbing. It was NOT at all a practical goal (given all my limitations) to be spending tones of time and money on — pretty hard to justify anyway. But.. What about about this “feeling of knowing” that Lehrer talkes about in the video? I knew that climbing the chief was going to be horrendous. Surely enough, every milestone was both a reward and a wake-up call about how much further it was to go. It took insane amounts of effort, from many people, over many years. Worth it.

This talk by Lehrer is really well done and it made me remember why it’s import to be inspired. It’s rare that we find projects worthy of a decade or more. So as my Father said to me, “choose [them] wisely … because a life well lived consists of overcoming as many as of them you can.”

So, what is next project or gadget to build? I think it’s building an electric, self driving “car”, maybe I can do this with my bother’s boys and my Dad doing some welding? Or more power assisted wheelchair action (project stalled and begging for some new ideas)? Or that fun laser project with my buddies? Or the ROV robot, yea that needs to go up stairs, or fly even? You see, the problem of choosing never goes away, and I don’t think I’m getting too much better at the choosing part. I’ve had one big win, and then some ‘feel good’ time since then. Time for some more stubbornness I say.

Update, Jonah Lehrer quits the New Yorker!