In retrospect, 2016, the year that Angela Duckworth published Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, may have been a high-water mark(巅峰；最高点) for the dogged go-getter‑ism she was selling. Her book landed just as Hillary Clinton, that avatar(化身；典型代表) of tenacity(坚韧；顽强), seemed poised to win the presidency and Alexander Hamilton was rapping on Broadway about not giving up his shot(不放弃他的机会). You could still just barely discern(辨认；察觉) within each of the billionaires who bestrode(横跨；跨越) Silicon Valley the dork(书呆子；呆子) with unusual willpower who had made it. And among the books clustered near Grit in airport bookstores—where the American self is apparently at its most moldable(可塑造的；易受影响的)—were other pitches for individual hardiness(坚韧；耐劳), including efforts to make Stoicism(斯多葛主义) hot again.
回顾起来，2016年——安杰拉·达克沃思出版《坚毅：激情与毅力的力量》的那一年——或许正是她所兜售的那种不屈不挠的“奋斗至上主义”的巅峰。她的书问世之际，希拉里·克林顿这位坚韧的化身似乎胜券在握，即将赢得总统大选；亚历山大·汉密尔顿正在百老汇用说唱讲述“绝不放弃你的机会”。你仍然勉强能从每一位叱咤硅谷的亿万富翁身上，辨认出那个凭借非凡意志力取得成功的书呆子。在机场书店里，《坚毅》旁边簇拥着的其他书籍——美国人的自我在那里显然最具可塑性——也在推销个人坚韧精神，包括试图让斯多葛主义再度流行。
When I read Grit now, it feels to me like a taunt(嘲弄；讥讽). Economic mobility has stalled, nonhumans are encroach(侵占；蚕食)ing on our jobs, and COVID has scarred us with the knowledge that the unforeseen(未预见到的；意外的) can creep up(悄然逼近；悄悄发生) at any moment. You can be as gritty as sandpaper and still feel trampled on(被践踏；被蹂躏).
如今再读《坚毅》，我觉得它像是一种嘲弄。经济流动性已经停滞，非人类正在蚕食我们的工作，而新冠疫情给我们留下了创伤，让我们深知意外随时可能悄然降临。你可以像砂纸一样坚毅，却依然感到被践踏。
Duckworth herself now seems ready to concede(承认；让步) that our mind alone can’t control the direction of our life, that it doesn’t all happen “from the inside out(由内而外),” as she put it in Grit. Back then, she arrived at the not-quite-mind-blowing conclusion that to be “the best of the best”—as accomplished as Olympic swimmers, Scripps National Spelling Bee champions, the president of Cinnabon—you had to really care about winning and work hard at it.(当年，她得出了一个并不那么惊人的结论：要成为“最优秀中的最优秀”——像奥运游泳选手、斯克里普斯全国拼字比赛冠军、Cinnabon总裁那样有成就——你必须真正在乎赢，并为此努力。) “Today I wake up every day asking the same question that led me to psychology in the first place: Why are some people more successful than others?” she writes in her new book, Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best. “But I no longer believe that a complete answer begins and ends with(始于且终于；仅限于) the individual.”
达克沃思本人现在似乎愿意承认，仅靠我们的头脑无法掌控人生的方向，并非一切都如她在《坚毅》中所说“由内而外”发生。当年，她得出了一个并不那么惊人的结论：要成为“最优秀中的最优秀”——像奥运游泳选手、斯克里普斯全国拼字比赛冠军、Cinnabon总裁那样有成就——你必须真正在乎赢，并为此努力。她在新书《情境：找到能激发你最佳状态的人和地方》中写道：“如今我每天醒来都会问那个最初引领我走向心理学的问题：为什么有些人比其他人更成功？但我不再相信一个完整的答案始于且终于个人。”