Book of the Week: Mindset

12 Sep 2015

mindset Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck talks about how there are two mindsets, the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. These mindsets tint how people perceive the world in all aspects of life leading to success or failure in their endeavors. I’ve read about a study saying that you should praise kids for effort rather than being intelligent if you want them to succeed in life. Carol Dweck did that study. The book describes how the growth mindset is better than a fixed mindset and how these differences play out in business, relationships, sports, school, etc. The fixed mindset resulted in Enron. Fixed Mindset versus Growth Mindset mindset This graphic (available for purchase) by Nigel Holmes provides a good summary. The Praised Generation

What’s so alarming is that we took ordinary children and made them into lairs, by simply telling them they were smart.

I’ll focus on kids, because this makes me angry and kids are our future. Kids are soft today. They are the most praised and coddled bunch. China’s one child policy probably has stuff to do with that too. But I’ll focus on American kids. They grow up and develop a fixed mindset, because of excessive praising valuing flawlessness over learning. Instead of thinking they should improve themselves, they blame other people for their setbacks. NFL outside linebacker James Harrison gave back the trophies his kid got for participation. That would mean every kid got a trophy, because they participated. That just devalues a trophy, because you just increased supply. The coach isn’t Oprah. “You get a trophy! You get a trophy! You get a trophy! EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY”. Before companies had just a few levels. Now they have to add more levels, so they can promote kids every year to a new title. I don’t want to see your mom coming into the office and asking why you didn’t get a promotion. Resources