Now this is from EMCrit, a blog about emergency medicine. But the article is excellent and of interest to all, including those who have nothing whatever to do with the medical world. It’s about grit. I’m tempted to quote great big hunks of it, but will settle for this:

Looking back at my first year of basic clinical science education, I can attest that grit seems to be important to succeed. I have watched as some very intelligent students, with elite academic pedigrees have failed. In so doing, I find it interesting how their first instinct is usually to blame the professor, the class material, or the test format. Their very image of themselves seems to have been shaken to the core and they continue to struggle. Yet there are others, many of whom do not have the same glowing list of scholarly accolades, that fail and see it as a challenge. They accept their shortcomings, acknowledge their mistakes, and work tirelessly to improve on the next exam. I sincerely admire this latter group. They demonstrate serious grit. [continue]

The article is thought-provoking. I was interested to read the bit about how the people who hire for Google have concluded that… well, you go read it and see what they’ve concluded.