[mym1990]

Not going to compare centuries, but from a day to day perspective I don't see that many people truly 'thriving'. The human mind/body loves homeostasis though. I see a good amount of people who are generally happy, or at least content, some settling into family life with newborns, many who are trying to find themselves(a quest that often gets interrupted by hours of mindless scrolling on app X). The medical advances of today are often prolonging painful existences, but humans are very adaptable to that kind of pain(have personal experience with this one).

There is something to your comment of life being easier(and not necessarily being a good thing). Fruits and vegetables often grow the best harvests when they are challenged(wind, rain, etc...) and I think this is also reflective of the human condition. I'm not saying go to war tomorrow so you can experience hardship, but there are ways to make life more challenging so that when true challenges arise, one can be a little stronger. I think we are losing some of this grit today.

[yamazakiwi]

Every generation will say that the generation after them is losing grit. When we solve problems or make tasks easier, that gives us time for other tasks. How much grit is actually necessary and who needs grit the most?

It would be helpful to be specific about what challenging behavior encourages grit or not. e.g. Going to the DMV does not improve my patience or make me a better person. To your point: What should we make challenging? Or better yet, how can we scale challenges to encourage grit?

Humans have limited energy and time resources to expend on being alive. We divert the energy spent on challenging things that don't matter to high-profile items, not necessarily better problems.

Conversely, what about the damages of going through too much challenge that you don't have the ability to meet? Does it always turn out OK after you've failed beyond belief? Is the ability to overcome challenges (beyond your basic day to day) even matter? SOME people might be able to improve the world by becoming resilient to challenge but MOST people will not affect the world in any way meaningfully in the long-term (even if they are a part of a team that does).

[mym1990]

My point was that practicing something like better patience may make an otherwise stressful DMV visit an ordinary affair. No one will ever know which challenges they will get presented with in life, but you can bet most people will eventually have to deal with massive loss of some sort or a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. For a high school kid this might be that paper that is due in 2 days, for others it might be a car crash that kills both parents.

Grit is developed in part by hearing that little voice in your head that says “I don’t feel like doing this” and then going out and doing that thing. I wouldn’t necessarily expect others to lay out a curriculum for you to develop these types of things. It could be going for a mile run or helping a coworker on a Friday afternoon, it doesn’t have to be going on a 25 mile run every other day.

While improving the world could be an end result, the main driver is probably just to have a more manageable existence for oneself.

Lastly, it doesn’t always turn out okay, and knowing how to deal with that needs to be part of the toolbox.

Now I hate the word grit haha

[yamazakiwi]

I also hate the word grit, it gets tossed around too much in entrepreneur spaces, but thanks for the insight!