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No Stupid Questions

104. How Simple Is Too Simple?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.63.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why are humans so eager for magic-bullet solutions? Can you explain how a pen works? And how does Angela feel about being forever branded “the grit lady”?

Transcript

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0:00.0

Whoa, that's a lot to spend for mechanical pencils.

0:05.5

I'm Antelope Duckworth.

0:07.9

I'm Stephen Dubner.

0:08.9

And you're listening to no stupid questions.

0:12.4

Today on the show, why do humans tend to choose simplicity over complexity?

0:18.2

I kind of feel like we need the opposite of Occam's razor.

0:20.9

Maybe we could call it the Dubner Duckworth razor?

0:24.8

Angie, I have a question for you that is both a straightforward question and, I suspect,

0:35.2

a bit of a trick question.

0:36.8

Ooh.

0:37.8

Are you intrigued?

0:38.8

I am.

0:39.8

What is it?

0:40.8

Is grit the key to success?

0:44.0

Or maybe I should say, is grit the key to success?

0:48.8

How do you answer that?

0:51.1

You know, my TED talk used to be called the key to success.

0:56.7

And some very unhappy person pointed out that's overselling and unlikely to be true.

1:05.9

I do not think, Stephen, that grit is the key to success in the sense that I don't think

1:15.1

grit is the only determinant of success.

1:19.1

I didn't choose the name of my TED talk.

1:22.8

People may not know this, but when you write an op-ed, say, for example, in New York Times,

...

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