[JenrHywy]

This is a good point. In practice, you need to acknowledge effort, ability and outcome. If you're thinking about areas of study or work, you really want to pick something you enjoy where you can produce quality outcomes and that almost always means ability + effort.

One of my kids basically sailed through his first 12 years of schooling on pure ability and zero effort. He's now learning the hard way that innate talent only gets you so far. His brother doesn't have the same innate academic ability, but is a natural grinder. He's finding the later years of schooling are easy to adapt to because he can pick things he's good at and knows how to put in the effort.

In terms of praise, we over-index on effort because it's a cross-cutting concern. This is especially true at younger ages where kids can't choose what they're studying. So if they get a C in French but maxed out all the effort criteria, I'm more than happy with that - and it's something for them to keep in mind when they're picking subjects later down the line.