2023-10-26
1 小时 3 分钟Giving up can be painful. That's why we need to talk about it. Today: stories about glitchy apps, leaky paint cans, broken sculptures — and a quest for the perfect bowl of ramen.
Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner.
Before we start, I would like to tell you about our new membership program.
It is called Freakonomics Radio plus.
If you are a member, you get an exclusive bonus episode every week and you can listen to all our shows without ads.
To learn more about Freakonomics Radio plus, search for Freakonomics radio on Apple Podcasts hey there, it's Stephen Dubner.
We have been making freakonomics radio for a while now, and there are two themes we have come back to again and again.
The first is the value of persistence, of staying the course, of not giving up.
Our friend Angela Duckworth, a research psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a book about this.
It's called the power of passion and perseverance.
Here she is on our sister podcast.
No stupid questions.
I think the reason why there are all these aphorisms about not giving up, and maybe why so much of my research has focused on the psychology of staying the course, is that sometimes the road not taken, the track that you want to switch to, is appealing not because it is objectively better, but because it's objectively easier just in the short run.
In other words, we give up because we're lazy, or maybe impatient or intimidated, or we're scared to fail.
That makes sense, doesn't it?
Duckoworth is saying we might be better off by learning to tough it out, but the other theme we have often explored is pretty much the opposite of grit.
Back in 2011, we made an episode called the upside of quitting.
Here's my freakonomics friend and co author, Steve Levitt.
More recently it is a compliment to.
Be called a quitter precisely because we live in a world where so many.
Forces push us to persist far too.