Why I'm Tired of 'Grit'

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Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were a band from Liverpool, England, who went to Hamburg, Germany's Cavern Club in 1960 to make their mark on the emerging pop-music scene. They didn't do well, releasing only two singles, neither of which made the Top 40 charts. But Rory Storm and the Hurricanes had an opening act that did a tad better. They were named the Beatles. Both played the same club, alternating six 90-minute performances each night for months. But only one band became a household name, while the other became a mere asterisk in the British Invasion.

If you believe Malcolm Gladwell—he of the mindset that 10,000 hours of practice ("grit") will make even the biggest musical sow's ear into a silk purse—both the Beatles and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes should have been equally successful. But they weren't, causing me to question Gladwell's assertion in his 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success that the Beatles would not have become the Beatles without the Hamburg experience. What distinguished these two bands? I'm guessing that the Beatles, as individuals, had something innate that Rory and his buddies didn't possess: musical genius that was enhanced by practice, but not determined by it.

—AP-File

The concept of "grit" has given both pop psychologists and those who discount the importance of genetics yet one more mantra on which to hang their pseudo-theoretical hats. Dismissing the role and importance of innate talents and abilities as true determinants of success, Gladwell chooses "practice, practice, practice" as the biggest driver of achievement. I half expected him to dedicate his book to Watty Piper, the author of The Little Engine That Could, as his views carry the same academic weight as that children's classic.

Why am I so tired of grit? Here are three reasons:

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