'Quit' Review: Know When to Fold 'Em
By: Barbara Spindel (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
If you read the business pages, it's been almost impossible to ignore the many articles on the topic of "quiet quitting" in recent months. This buzzy term refers to employees—at least half the U.S. workforce, according to polling—resolving to meet only the bare minimum requirements of their job descriptions. When it comes to giving up, however, Annie Duke has something louder in mind. In "Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away," the author, consultant and former professional poker player proposes that quitting, the unambiguous kind, ought to be seen as a virtue and honed as a skill integral to both professional and personal success. Instead, it's often maligned by a culture that valorizes grit and tenacity.
Grit has its place, Ms. Duke acknowledges, but while it "can get you to stick to hard things that are worthwhile, grit can also get you to stick to hard things that are no longer worthwhile." The challenge lies in figuring out when it's best to stay the course and when it makes more sense to jump ship.
This illuminating, easily digestible book offers vivid examples of people who landed on the right and wrong sides of that equation. Ms. Duke sees Muhammad Ali as a prime illustration of the latter. His talent and determination made him one of boxing’s all-time greats, but his refusal to hang up his gloves, in the face of glaring indications that he ought to, resulted in neurological damage and hastened his physical and mental decline.
The author cites several other cases from elite sports, a high-stakes arena in which grit is critical to success. She tells the stories of several would-be climbers of Mount Everest, and while her frequent references to the mountaineers get repetitive, she uses their harrowing experiences to good effect. Reaching the summit of Everest is arduous and extremely dangerous, but because climbers invest so much—physically, mentally, financially—in the attempt, they can be unwilling to turn back before achieving their goal. “If you turn around 300 feet from the summit of Everest, you will feel like you failed,” Ms. Duke observes, even though she documents instances in which “failing” in that way made the difference between life and death.
Ms. Duke herself once had to make a wrenching decision about quitting. She was studying cognitive psychology when health issues compelled her to drop out of her doctoral program. Her brother, Howard Lederer, was doing well as a professional poker player, and Ms. Duke, in search of a way to make money, took up the game, eventually earning more than $4 million in tournament prizes and winning a World Series of Poker bracelet and other titles over the course of an almost 20-year career.
As was the case in two of Ms. Duke’s previous books, “Thinking in Bets” and “How to Decide,” both her poker expertise and her academic interests are evident in “Quit.” (She’s also written several books focused exclusively on poker.) Sharing relevant lessons from her gambling years, she contends that quitting at the right time is the primary factor separating the amateurs from the pros. In Ms. Duke’s words—hat tip to Kenny Rogers—“amateurs usually hold ’em. Professionals usually fold ’em.” As for her academic interests, she neatly summarizes social-science research from psychologist Daniel Kahneman, economist Richard Thaler and others that helps explain our seemingly irrational behavior when it comes to persisting and even escalating our commitment in the face of losing propositions.
The guidance in “Quit” will be most useful in a work context; indeed, some of Ms. Duke’s most effective examples involve startup founders and entrepreneurs. (She notes, intriguingly, that because of our cultural bias against quitting, those prescient enough to abandon projects on time were usually told they were quitting too early.) She suggests practical solutions, including establishing “kill criteria,” benchmarks identified in advance that will signal that it’s time to cut your losses, and appointing a “quitting coach,” an objective outside observer who will tell you when it’s time to walk away from a job or a project.
Ms. Duke notes that these strategies can also be applied to relationships. “If your goal is marriage (or an equivalent long-term commitment),” she writes, “then if your relationship partner hasn’t proposed (or accepted your proposal or otherwise demonstrated a long-term commitment) by a certain date, you should move on and find someone who is as excited about committing to you as you are to them.”
In this attempt to apply an attitude of thoughtful realism in the workplace to matters of the heart, “Quit” doesn’t quite convince. While data and analytics increasingly provide real-time feedback on what’s working and what isn’t in a business context, such objective measures are elusive when it comes to love. And who would relish the opportunity to act as a quitting coach for someone’s relationship? In most cases, advising a friend to dump a spouse or partner probably wouldn’t go over well (and might even get you fired from the position of confidant).
Still, Ms. Duke’s argument that the idea of quitting needs to be rehabilitated is perceptive and timely. Quiet quitting, after all, is an indication that your work is failing to engage you. In this tight labor market, it’s a safe bet that Ms. Duke would consider old-fashioned quitting to be the better way to go.
Ms. Spindel’s book reviews appear in the Christian Science Monitor, the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere.
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The obvious question: Why is this book worthy of a review?
The answer lies with the time in which it was written: the time of the pandemic.
Annie Duke with her brother Howard Lederer
The book is:
Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
By Annie Duke
Writing a book was an ideal thing to do while in lockdown. One would not be bored, and what is accomplished could be financially beneficial.
One of the the interesting aspects of poker is the amount of decision making that occurs in a single hand that lasts 1-3 minutes with immediate and unequivocal feedback - you've either won money or lost money.
Another interesting aspect, that many may not know, is that in Poker you are actually playing opposing players more than the cards.
Yes and the more that you can play against folks that frequently make poor math decisions the more you will win. Luck plays a major role in the short-term but math always wins in the long-term.
Very true. We are all creatures of habit
"...resolving to meet only the bare minimum requirements of their job descriptions."
That's a high percentage of government hacks who lack the balls to just walk away.
Maybe written of the pandemic's hangers on, who considered an early retirement. I think that's the message here. You either go to work with a complete spirit or you call it quits.
That's another good book, "The Complete Book of Spirits: A Guide to Their History, Production, and Enjoyment
Lol
I don't have the balls to walk away from $164K before bonus, 26 days vacation plus 13 days sick leave, 11 paid holidays, good retirement etc. and I've worked from home since April 2020.
pajamascamma
I work like Hugh Hefner but without some of his perks.
… and that’s another thing - total lack of common sense. One titty joke and it’s a day of sharp training for your misogynistic, ignorant ass.