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This book by Carol S. Dweck was strongly recommended to me and as a person whose mindset was broken for a very long time, I thought I should give it a read.

First, the bad: Dweck is a Stanford psychologist who has written and researched this subject on a scholarly level, and this is her attempt to write a popular treatment of her work. As a reasonably intelligent person, I felt that she was aiming low. It's not written on the insulting Seussian level of "Who Moved My Cheese" or similar crap, but most of it feels like getting hit over the head repeatedly with the same point, example after example after example. And if you tire easily of "conversational" writing that includes sentence fragments and colloquialisms, this book will be annoying in the extreme.

Now for the good parts: you should ignore all of the above because they are minor quibbles with her presentation of an idea that is very powerful and useful. To oversimplify it, she describes the two extremes of "mindsets," or beliefs about talent and learning. On one end the "fixed mindset" emphasizes talent and a fixed level of intelligence, and on the other the "growth mindset" emphasizes the ability to keep learning and increasing one's skills.

She uses a wide range of examples (John MacEnroe shows up a lot) to show how people with a fixed mindset behave in contrast to those with a growth mindset. She provides examples in sports, business, teaching, parenting, etc. and ends each chapter with a set of questions meant to stimulate the reader to examine his own mindset.

I found it to be an excessive amount of repetition, but upon reflection it might not be excessive for many people. I'm very used to playing with the inside of my own head, especially with cognitive therapy. So for me, this was really just another tool in the toolbox, albeit a very effective and powerful one. Others who are not very used to this kind of work may need all those examples.

Take home message: a very valuable perspective, and worth a read, but cloaked in a "pop" format. If you've done a lot of self-work you'll be able to fly through about 90% of it, take no notes, and will never have to read it again, while retaining the message and being able to apply it. You'll have to just ignore the annoying style and "dumbing down" while zipping through and mining the good stuff. (If you want the original research BTW, there are notes and references in the back.)

I'm not clear on what conclusions the book draws on the two mindsets from your review.

That is what I get for writing it in three or four sessions while doing a bunch of other stuff. I meant to paste in this link, which sums it quite well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Dweck

According to Dweck, individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their implicit views of where ability comes from. Some believe their success is based on innate ability; these are said to have a "fixed" theory of intelligence. Others, who believe their success is based on hard work and learning, are said to have a "growth" or an "incremental" theory of intelligence. Individuals may not necessarily be aware of their own mindset, but their mindset can still be discerned based on their behavior. It is especially evident in their reaction to failure. Fixed-mindset individuals dread failure because it is a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth mindset individuals don't mind failure as much because they realize their performance can be improved. These two mindsets play an important role in all aspects of a person's life. Dweck argues that the growth mindset will allow a person to live a less stressful and more successful life.

This is important because (1) individuals with a "growth" theory are more likely to continue working hard despite setbacks and (2) individuals' theories of intelligence can be affected by subtle environmental cues. For example, children given praise such as "good job, you're very smart" are much more likely to develop an fixed mindset, whereas if given compliments like "good job, you worked very hard" they are likely to develop a growth mindset. In other words, it is possible to encourage students, for example, to persist despite failure by encouraging them to think about learning in a certain way.

GoDogGo! wrote:For example, children given praise such as "good job, you're very smart" are much more likely to develop an fixed mindset, whereas if given compliments like "good job, you worked very hard" they are likely to develop a growth mindset. In other words, it is possible to encourage students, for example, to persist despite failure by encouraging them to think about learning in a certain way.

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This is interesting. How much of an effect do the parents have on the child developing a fixed or growth mindset? Is it as simple switching the type of praise or is it already there in the child and the parent is enforcing it either way? I have said both to my daughter who is in school. That she did a good job and is very smart and also that she did a good job and worked very hard.

My whole family is very hard workers, I am by far the laziest, but even so it was instilled in me that nothing worthwhile comes easy or without much work and sacrifice.

I heard quite a bit growing up that if you want something worthwhile it takes hard work to achieve it. And also to never give up...try, try again...if at first you don't succeed...

Fat Cat wrote:My whole family is very hard workers, I am by far the laziest, but even so it was instilled in me that nothing worthwhile comes easy or without much work and sacrifice.

If you'd stop stroking that fish you'd get more done...

One of the most interesting and important things that I took away from this book is that praising ability, even by stuff like "Oh, you're so smart!" causes a DECREASE in kid's performance. So all that "build their self-esteem" crap is counterproductive. Praise effort, not talent.

I had actually read about that research a few months ago, and this book reminded me of it. I'll have to find a link to that story.

Don't talk about my fish.

Here youse goes. I don't know if it's the exact same story I read, but no matter; there are a bunch of them. Thanks google.

http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

And another article by Dweck that gives you the idea:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the ... smart-kids

Good review Dog. You're very smart.

BucketHead wrote:Good review Dog. You're very smart.

You should join me in my quest to stop being snarky and mean.