In “The Upside of Quitting,” we learned that quitting can be especially hard when we’ve invested a lot of time, money, or energy into a pursuit. Dubner says, “we take a rule we learn growing up –to not be wasteful—and over-apply it” (11). This idea of waste raises a question for me. If we quit something, is the time, money, and energy we put into that thing wasted? Quitting challenges us to think about how we tell the story of our past.
Your question for writing is:
If Matthew Crawford were to tell the story of his life, how do you think he might explain those years getting his PhD? How do you know? (A question to get you thinking about your evidence.) How might you apply what you learned from the episode on quitting to support your answer to this question?
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The sources for your paper will be:
“The Upside of Quitting,” by Stephen J. Dubner, for Freakonomics Radio
“The Case for Working with Your Hands,” by Matthew B. Crawford