In praise of quitting - by Cate Hall - Useful Fictions
If you seek advice from people at the very top of competitive domains, you’ll probably hear a lot about the power of tenacity, grit, and determination. There is obviously wisdom in this: You won’t get very far in life if you’re constantly changing course at the first sign of challenge or boredom. And it’s probably true that you will never be one of the very best in the world at something without developing a singleminded and lifelong obsession with it.
But most of us don’t have a shot at being on one of those podiums, or even aspire to it. For us, there’s little danger in prematurely abandoning our latent potential to be the best gamer, or the best free diver, or the best developer. The far, far greater danger is in devoting our days to something that fundamentally doesn’t matter to us, because we’re too afraid to cut our losses.
As Kenny Rogers said, “you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away,” and wouldn’t you know it, I have a poker analogy for this.
