The "natural" preference
There is an informative study in the beginning of the book that can be seen as the overarching metaphor for understanding the book's premise or approach. People prefer "natural talent" even when there is no difference at all between the performances. If someone suggests that one recording is naturally talented, and the other is talent through hard work and practice, the listener (even though it is the same recording) will prefer the natural, because that reinforces a belief that protects them from the real truth: only hard work leads to mastery or success.
The emotional allegory of trying
The artist who tries to improve without taking a disciplined, regular approach to improvement (practice) undergoes an emotional journey that Duckworth explains. The allegory is a dilemma of self worth, she says. It feels like one thing is wrong when another is. Because the progress is not coming automatically, the person begins to rehearse feelings of low self-esteem, believing they don't have what it takes. Ironically, the escape from this nightmare is to try daily and to measure improvements by setting goals.
The infinite progress of mastery
Duckworth alludes to a mathematical principle for increase. A person who is practicing daily hoping to attain mastery is like an infinite growth. In math, two infinite growths are equal, regardless of their starting point. In this case, the starting place is "natural ability or talent," and in light of the infinite progress of disciplined progress toward mastery, the natural talent is infinitesimal. Talent is irrelevant compared to disciplined practice, she says through the metaphor.
Concrete progress versus abstract progress
Although the struggling artist longs to improve, Duckworth shows that there are basically two kinds of workers. There are those who use their emotions to gauge their ability and improvement through time, and there are those that use concrete metrics and realistic assessments to tell how they are improving, or where they need more practice. Not surprisingly, the concrete worker is the one who makes the most improvements through time.
Habit and progress
Habit is shown as the secret to success. By harnessing the human propensity to repeat behaviors daily, the artist is able to gain traction through time. By improving a little every day, the improvements are able to stack, and they begin to have a "body" of learning. They can go further with this inertia than by artistic desire which is shown to be weak compared to this nearly magical power of working repetitively until it is second nature.
