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Re:Thinking with Adam GrantRe:Thinking with Adam Grant

The science of personality and the art of well-being with Brian Little | ReThinking with Adam Grant

Award-winning researcher and pioneering psychologist Brian Little has plenty of accomplishments under his belt. He’s the author of the bestselling books, “Me, Myself, and Us” and “Who Are You, Really?” His TED talk on the science of personality has tens of millions of views, and he’s been elected a Favorite Professor multiple times at Harvard. And he’s also Adam’s favorite psychologist – and personal mentor. Brian and Adam talk about how our personal projects shape our well-being, the nuances of introversion and extraversion, when it makes sense to act out of character, and what our daily pursuits reveal about us. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts The TED Audio Collective is a collection of podcasts for the curious. The TED Audio Collective videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organiz...). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com.

Adam GranthostBrian Littleguest
Jul 25, 202333mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

How personal projects and traits shape well-being, choice, and resilience

  1. Little argues that personality is not only traits but also the personal projects people pursue, which reveal the real intersection of dispositions and life circumstances.
  2. Well-being depends less on having “meaningful” projects alone and more on pairing meaning with manageability—especially perceived efficacy and progress potential.
  3. Projects are sustained by social connection and by emotional tone: even valued projects can become unsustainable when they generate chronic stress or negative affect.
  4. A key diagnostic is the cross-impact of projects: a beloved core project can still be harmful if it undermines other priorities or conflicts with others’ projects.
  5. The conversation reframes “acting out of character” as value-driven “free traits,” emphasizing that volition and restorative niches reduce the cost of temporary trait-transcendence.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Meaningful goals don’t boost well-being if they feel unmanageable.

Little notes that meaning by itself is not the best predictor; projects need efficacy, time, and a sense of control/coherence to translate purpose into well-being.

Efficacy is the strongest project-level predictor of happiness and health.

Across outcomes, the perceived likelihood of successful completion matters most—hopeless-feeling projects (even deeply valued ones) drag global well-being down.

Support and connection make projects sustainable, not just admirable.

Projects that others dismiss or obstruct tend to wither; feeling socially supported (and, in part, contributing/relating to others) helps keep pursuits viable.

Stress can invalidate an otherwise “perfect” project portfolio.

Even meaningful, manageable, socially supported projects can burn you out if their emotional tone is dominated by negative affect; sustainability requires enough positive affect.

Evaluate projects as a system, not in isolation.

Grant’s diving example shows a loved core project can become a net negative when it disrupts other priorities (time, money, learning, relationships). Cross-impact mapping makes these hidden tradeoffs visible.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

But sheer chance comes booming out of the left visual field, and all of a sudden you've got a new research idea, or you've fallen in love, or all of a sudden you've got clarity on something you'd never thought of before, and that seems to me to be part of the magic of what it is to be a human being.

— Brian Little

I see it as absolutely marvelous how fortuity can just plunk itself down on us, change our life trajectory.

— Brian Little

The single most important dimension out of personal projects in predicting various outcome measures like health and well-being and happiness, is the sense of efficacy, the likelihood that you will... that you perceive successful completion of these projects.

— Brian Little

I realized that the diving project in and of itself was a core project for me, but it was having a negative impact on every other project that I had.

— Adam Grant

The sustainability is greater if it is something that you volitionally undertake rather than something that is imposed on you.

— Brian Little

Personal projects analysis (PPA)Meaning vs manageability (efficacy)Connection/support in projectsPositive and negative affect in pursuitsCross-impact matrices (within-person and interpersonal)Serendipity/contingency in life pathsFree traits and restorative niches (introversion/extraversion)

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