The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos Stop Doing Things the Hard Way with Dr. Angela Duckworth

When we’re struggling to reach a goal, most of us assume the answer is to buckle down and try harder. But what if all that white-knuckling is actually making things more difficult than they need to be?

Dr. Laurie speaks with psychologist Angela Duckworth, best known for her groundbreaking work on grit, about a surprising new approach to achievement. In her new book, Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best, Angela explains why changing what’s around us can sometimes be more effective than trying to change ourselves.

Experts Mentioned:

• Angela Duckworth, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania 
• Lee Ross, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University 
• Richard Nisbett, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Michigan 
• James Gross, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University 
• Adrian Ward, Associate Professor of Marketing at University of Texas at Austin
• Joseph Henrich, Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University
• Bob Bowman, Director of Swimming and Diving and Head Men’s Coach at University of Texas at Austin
• Martin Seligman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania
• Anders Ericsson, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University
• Walter Mischel, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Columbia University
• Reinhold Niebuhr, Protestant theologian
• Viktor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist

Resources Mentioned:

• Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best, by Angela Duckworth (2026)
• Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth (2016)
• The Person and the Situation: Perspectives on Social Psychology, by Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett (1991)
• Frog and Toad Together, by Arnold Lobel (1972)
• Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl (1946)
• “The Serenity Prayer,” by Reinhold Niebuhr
• The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
• The Golden Rules: 10 Steps to World-Class Excellence in Your Life and Work, by Bob Bowman (2016)
• “A Stitch in Time: Strategic Self-Control in High School and College Students,” by Angela Duckworth, Rachel White, Alyssa Matteucci, Annie Shearer, and James Gross (Journal of Educational Psychology, 2016)
• “Self-Control and Academic Achievement,” by Angela Duckworth, Jamie Taxer, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Brian Galla, and James Gross (Annual Review of Psychology, 2019)
• “Self-control and SAT outcomes: Evidence from two national field studies,” by Chayce Baldwin, Kyla Haimovitz, Priya Shankar, Robert Gallop, David Yeager, James Gross, and Angela Duckworth (PLoS One, 2022)
• “Situational Strategies for Self-Control,” by Angela Duckworth, Tamar Szabó Gendler, and James Gross (Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2016)
• “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity,” by Adrian Ward, Kristen Duke, Ayelet Gneezy, and Maarten Bos. (Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2017)
• “A 2-Phase Labeling and Choice Architecture Intervention to Improve Healthy Food and Beverage Choices,” by Anne N Thorndike, Lillian Sonnenberg, Jason Riis, Susan Barraclough, and Douglas E Levy (American Journal of Public Health, 2012)
• “Innovation in the collective brain,” by Michael Muthukrishna and Joseph Henrich (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2016)

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