Freakonomics Radio · 2025-05-16 · 64 min · 10,137 words

How to Succeed at Failing, Part 3: Grit vs. Quit (Update)

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Hey there, Stephen Dubner. Today we're continuing our update of a series on failure we published a couple years ago called How to Succeed at Failing. In this episode you will hear some personal stories from people who tried something new and failed. One of those people is Travis Thal, who thought what the world really needed was a new way to make instant ramen.

Stay tuned to the end to hear how that worked out. We have updated all facts and figures as necessary. As always, thanks for listening. We have been making Freekonomics 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, not giving up. Our friend Angela Duckworth, a research psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a book about this. It's called Grit, The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Here she is on another podcast we used to make together called 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

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