So we learned a lot in the analysis of the data. And one of the big things was that we needed more data. Maybe that's not so unusual. And we learned that there were other elements, in addition to things like grit and self-control, that influenced how young people developed and perceived themselves and their own abilities. So we looked at questions like, to what extent was this an open-minded individual? Or, to what extent did they believe that what they were doing went beyond the self? And so while the Duckworth Lab is very much a quantity lab and uses sophisticated data analysis and statistics, there were other ways of looking at it. And some of it involved an interview process, and then looking at what the interviews revealed. What we learned, and we learned pretty quickly that there was a collection of elements, components that would lead to, again, in one of our earliest studies, success in college, in persisting. That there was a pattern that was evolving over and over again, where, clearly, grit and self-control, the ability to defer gratification, really, really matters. But at the same time, these other factors would very much mediate and influence the way these things would manifest themselves. And one of the insights that I had through looking at the research was another way of looking at how to change these outcomes. What might interventions look like, even what is the role of a teacher and an administrator in helping to cultivate these qualities that would have a substantial influence over the lifetime, or at least over the course of a study. And these sometimes were longitudinal studies that would follow students for five years. What would change their trajectory and things like that? And my own hypothesis, I would say that one of the things that I realized is that these things were far more malleable than I originally thought while I entered into this. And any educator who doesn't believe that these things can change probably doesn't belong in education. We have to have this capacity to believe in the ability of our students to grow and change. But I will say that I was a bit agnostic about it. And I have to confess to suspecting that personality traits were pretty powerful. And also a suspicion that things like childhood trauma, and poverty, and nutritional deficits, would have lasting effects. And they do, I'm not suggesting they don't. But I have come to believe that, through a variety of strategies, those things can grow and change. That that is the capacity to overcome the limitations of birth, and upbringing, and nutrition, and circumstances of that sort. And interestingly, I'd mentioned in the introduction that I had done some work with mostly men who were incarcerated. And one of the things I saw with them, because I used some of the measures for a study, not that the Duckworth Lab conducted, but one that the organization I'm involved with did. And what we found was that, by exposure to different strategies and things like deliberate practice, the ability to try something and have a strategy up front for how to persist and how to continue in the work, even when one has grown tired. And also just seeing this sort of over and over again, that it was very possible, through a variety of strategies, not only to measure noncognitive traits, but also to intervene and to create activities that would ultimately help individuals to increase their skills, their strategies.
