I shouldn't have done that.
I'm Angela Duckworth.
I'm Stephen Dubner, and you're listening to.
No stupid questions today on the show.
What happens when super disciplined people lose their self control?
There are a lot of things that you would not do for $100 that you might consider for a billion dollars.
Angela, I know that you are working on a new book, and one question that you're trying to answer within that book intrigues me greatly.
The question is something like, why do some people with extraordinarily high levels of self control in certain areas of their life totally blow it in other areas?
And a couple examples I know you use are Eliot Spitzer and Tiger woods.
So I want to know the answer to that question.
I guess what I'm asking for is a preview of the book that you're only now writing.
But how can you explain that?
And what does it mean for the rest of us?
You're right, Steven.
I'm fascinated and have been for a long time about how variable our self control is across different situations.
You know, I remember when the editor and literary agent convinced me to write grit.
I said to them, I mostly study self control.
Look at my cv.
Most of these papers are about people choosing to do things that are good for their future self, meaning their self, like 10, 15, 20 minutes from now, versus something that's meaning gratifying to their present self.
And that is not exactly the same thing as grit, which is having passion for a goal that's relevant to your identity and overcoming setbacks.