Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best

by Angela Duckworth

The long-awaited and groundbreaking new book by the bestselling author of Grit

In Grit, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth showed parents, students, educators, athletes and businesspeople—both seasoned and new—that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit.”

Now, she tackles the difficult challenge of making change and shows how the secrets to lasting personal growth are not where we usually look. Your situation can be as powerful as your genes in determining everything you think, feel, say and do. You’ll learn why the psychological pull of your situation is as strong as gravity—and just as invisible. Most important, you’ll learn how to recognize the situations that bring out your best, and your worst, and how to make the power of situation work for you.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Business, Leadership, Audiobook, Personal Development

Audible Audio

Published September 1, 2026

About the author

Angela Duckworth, PhD, is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. An expert in non-I.Q. competencies, she has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Prior to her career in research, she taught children math and science and was the founder of a summer school for low-income children that won the Better Government Award from the state of Massachusetts. She completed her BA in neurobiology at Harvard, her MSc in neuroscience at Oxford, and her PhD in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. More recently, she founded Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help kids thrive. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance is her first book.

Reviews

[Jon Barr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duckworth goes a couple steps back to ask if our environment can have just as much impact on our success as our effort. Her three-box model (or 6 box, if you include the aspirational version as well) is the perfect blend of simple and effective. Sure to be the nonfiction book of the season.

[Helen Wu ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.25

Love me an informative, digestible, and timely book. I’ve stopped looking for mentors for a few years now. Great reminder to continue looking for mentors but also giving back. In the past, you would think the 10,000 hours of grit is enough, not necessarily true anymore. Who do we surround ourselves with and how we spend our time…and how we perceive things, equally important. Finished this book in one day. I like it!

[Elizabeth]

As heard on The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos (Stop Doing Things the Hard Way with Dr. Angela Duckworth)

When we’re struggling to reach a goal, most of us assume the answer is to buckle down and try harder. But what if all that white-knuckling is actually making things more difficult than they need to be?

Dr. Laurie speaks with psychologist Angela Duckworth, best known for her groundbreaking work on grit, about a surprising new approach to achievement. In her new book, Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best, Angela explains why changing what’s around us can sometimes be more effective than trying to change ourselves.

Experts Mentioned:

Angela Duckworth, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania  Lee Ross, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University  Richard Nisbett, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Michigan  James Gross, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University  Adrian Ward, Associate Professor of Marketing at University of Texas at Austin Joseph Henrich, Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University Bob Bowman, Director of Swimming and Diving and Head Men’s Coach at University of Texas at Austin Martin Seligman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Anders Ericsson, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University Walter Mischel, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Columbia University Reinhold Niebuhr, Protestant theologian Viktor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist

Resources Mentioned:

Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best, by Angela Duckworth (2026) Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth (2016) The Person and the Situation: Perspectives on Social Psychology, by Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett (1991) Frog and Toad Together, by Arnold Lobel (1972) Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl (1946) “The Serenity Prayer,” by Reinhold Niebuhr The Art of War, by Sun Tzu The Golden Rules: 10 Steps to World-Class Excellence in Your Life and Work, by Bob Bowman (2016) “A Stitch in Time: Strategic Self-Control in High School and College Students,” by Angela Duckworth, Rachel White, Alyssa Matteucci, Annie Shearer, and James Gross (Journal of Educational Psychology, 2016) “Self-Control and Academic Achievement,” by Angela Duckworth, Jamie Taxer, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Brian Galla, and James Gross (Annual Review of Psychology, 2019) “Self-control and SAT outcomes: Evidence from two national field studies,” by Chayce Baldwin, Kyla Haimovitz, Priya Shankar, Robert Gallop, David Yeager, James Gross, and Angela Duckworth (PLoS One, 2022) “Situational Strategies for Self-Control,” by Angela Duckworth, Tamar Szabó Gendler, and James Gross (Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2016) “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity,” by Adrian Ward, Kristen Duke, Ayelet Gneezy, and Maarten Bos. (Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2017) “A 2-Phase Labeling and Choice Architecture Intervention to Improve Healthy Food and Beverage Choices,” by Anne N Thorndike, Lillian Sonnenberg, Jason Riis, Susan Barraclough, and Douglas E Levy (American Journal of Public Health, 2012) “Innovation in the collective brain,” by Michael Muthukrishna and Joseph Henrich (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2016)

Related Episodes:

“Your Environment Affects Your Happiness More Than You Think with Dr. Leidy Klotz” “How to Spend Your Time and Money Better (with Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler)” “The Man Who Invented Happiness Science: Marty Seligman” “How Our Screen Habits Impact Our Stress Levels”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-happiness-l...

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Like many folks, I originally was introduced to Angela Duckworth via the concept of grit, which, as a college educator, was ubiquitous for a time (and, in some circles, still is). That concept/work was vital in my approach to teaching community college students, so I became very interested in reading Duckworth's newest book, _Situated_. It's also full of interesting content.

This book is really about setting yourself up for success. There are countless examples - from Olympic swimmers to Duckworth's own daughter - of how folks can facilitate better outcomes through simply being mindful about the circumstances in which they place themselves.

I'll admit that there was no point during this read when I thought I was coming across something revolutionary or particularly new. However, reading this, especially right before the start of a new semester and a new academic year, was helpful in a very specific way: as a great reminder that not everyone is thinking about how to set themselves up for success all the time. That might sound obvious, but if you're the kind of person (raises her hand with the speed and enthusiasm of a teenage Tracy Flick) who pretty much exclusively operates in this way, well...

This was useful as a reminder and well timed as I prepare to meet a new group of students.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ARC was sent to me free for review by Simon and Schuster. Situated builds upon Grit. Depending on how you feel about Grit, you may have different opinions.

Overall, I found this to be an easy read, but that is at the sacrifice of depth and research reporting. I, personally, am not a huge fan of very familial personal anecdotes in nonfiction books, especially of research. I find these sort of anecdotes to bias the research. Like it’s great you see your concept exhibited in your kid, but it is still a bias. I’d rather see examples of the principle in even more people that are not familial relations.

It seems like she is building upon some of the critiques myself and others developed of Grit because this is about the power of situation. While it does have a part devoted to situational agency, there are a lot of factors that inhibit the power of personal agency are not really mentioned or considered.

The theme of this book is 3 boxes - situation, thoughts, response.

I’m also nervous posting this review. Please be kind. 😅

[Madalina Vlasceanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Situated is a brilliant and deeply important book, making a compelling case that understanding human behavior requires looking beyond our individual willpower to the situations and systems in which we are embedded. Our environments shape what feels possible, desirable, normal, and worth pursuing, and changing those environments can therefore be one of the most powerful ways to change behavior and improve society.

I found this framework especially resonant for thinking about climate change. For decades, much of the climate movement has asked how we can persuade individuals to care more, know more, or behave differently. Instead, Situated suggests asking - how can we create social, institutional, and physical environments in which climate action becomes easier, more normative, more rewarding, and ultimately self-sustaining? Rather than treating people as the problem to be fixed, the framework directs attention to the conditions that enable people and communities to act.

Overall, the book is honest, accessible, rigorous, optimistic, and useful, and I could not recommend it more!

[Patricia Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

all it takes to change your life is to change locations. this might be easy for a newby in the workforce, but somewhat harder for the older employee. I can see how exposure to things done differently at different locations can spearhead your thoughts on how and where to live your life. the thing I agree on most is the mentor. if someone has an encourager outside of their immediate family, I can see how this would affect how a person lives their life. also, I think this is true about have a culture where you work/live. having worked at the same institution but in different locations, the lack of culture in one situation led me to quit that job.

[Jared Kolok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth shattering here. My enjoyment of this was clearly colored by my own situation and the frustration of already recognizing the impact of my environment. That said, this is a critical follow-up to Grit. It shows the incremental advances of science through the rigorous testing of previously accepted hypotheses (in this case grit is all that matters) to find more accurate conclusions that better describe reality.

[Katelyn Childs]

There’s good info in here, but know that it’s more like a primer than an advanced read in case you’re hoping it goes beyond basics. I also think it’s a bit narrowed in on situation which, obviously that’s the main focus of the book, but given all the topics she explores, it elevates situation/environment above most other factors which I don’t think is always the case. Either way, can be a good read if you want to learn about how your situational factors can impact your life.

[Jeff Berman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the perks of hosting Masters of Scale is getting early access to books I love. A far bigger benefit is getting to be in conversation with those authors. And it’s the best when both the book and the conversation have you still buzzing days later.

It’s a good bet you know Angela Duckwoth from Grit. You should rush to meet her again when Situated drops on September 1. Pre-order it now.

[Canyon Kornicker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent insights on human behavior from one of the best and brightest in the business. So happy to finally see this in print!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not as clean, stark, and simple as Grit, it feels like the logical next step…kind of work smarter, not harder…then apply the grit. Definitely some food for self-improvement here.

[Khoa Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!!! I will be waiting for another 10 years for her next book!

[Dabney O’Riordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thoughtful re-evaluation and expansion of her book Grit.