Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

"A recent study showed that the majority of teachers in the US know this phrase: growth mindset. Why? I think partly because it’s so intuitive. Growth mindset is the belief that people can grow with effort and opportunity. But Dweck said recently that there is a lot of ‘false growth mindset.’ I’ve seen that happen in schools, where whenever kids struggle they are told ‘you need a growth mindset.’ Of course, many other factors matter and must be address. But you also really need to understand that ‘growth mindset’ is not just a slogan. “I’ve never met a CEO who didn’t have Mindset on their bookshelf” Understanding the research that Carol Dweck has done and unpacking is invaluable. Why do some have fixed mindsets? Where do they come from? What goes on in kids’ heads when they fail? How do mindsets determine what we do? Plus, Carol Dweck is not only a great psychologist, she is an outstanding writer. It’s a beautifully written book. Without exaggeration, I’ve never met a CEO who didn’t have Mindset on their bookshelf. It resonates with people who have become successful—CEOs, coaches and other leaders—because the belief that your abilities can grow is foundational to their achievements. We are the first generation to use the science of experimental psychology to help people become happier and healthier. When Carol Dweck does research on mindset, or I do research on self-control, or Matthias Gruber does research on curiosity, we don’t want people to take away the wrong lesson. Take the importance of practice: studies show that not all practice is effective, but concentrated practice focused on precise skills, with deliberate goals and immediate feedback, can lead to large improvements in performance. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter We did a very short experiment where we taught kids that information and found that, compared to placebo controls, they actually improved their grades. You could say the lesson of all this research and the lesson of your character lab is that it only takes 25 minutes to change a child. But I don’t think that’s the lesson. For example, in the experiment that I just told you about, performance improvements disappeared or got diluted over longer periods of time, so that by the second marking period following the intervention, they were no longer detectable. “Studies show that not all practice is effective, but concentrated practice focused on precise skills can lead to large improvements in performance” The real lesson is if you—as a parent, coach, teacher or boss—help someone to understand the nature of practice, it will help them deal with the effort and the frustration that is necessary to achieve better. That needs to be reinforced in continually and in every possible way. So, we are working on providing the scientific insights that you can use to make your managing, parenting, and teaching better. But applying those insights is not as simple as relaying them."

"This is great. It’s a self-help book, but it’s written by one of the most well-respected social psychologists. Carol Dweck has done really groundbreaking work over several decades, and found that there are differences in how people think about success and achievement. As she puts it in the book, people have either a “fixed” mindset or a “growth” mindset. The fixed mindset is that you have these fixed, permanent traits. They can’t be changed, and you should be judged on the basis of them. With the growth mindset, you grow and change with experience, and that’s an important part of life – changing and learning and becoming better. In her work, she’s found that not only are there these stable differences in how people think, but that they have stunning consequences for how people do when they’re faced with a challenge. If you have a fixed mindset and then you don’t do so well on a task, it can be really devastating. You take that as evidence that you’re no good at whatever it is. But if you’ve got a growth mindset and you’re faced with a challenge, then your response to that is, “OK, what can I learn from this and how can I get better?” There are some really counter-intuitive results she has too. Praise, for example, turns out to be a really bad thing, because it fosters a fixed mindset. If you praise someone for how they do, then they lose interest in that activity. This is based on experiments with kids. They’re less likely to continue with the activity that they’re praised for, because they’re vulnerable then. They don’t want to try it again and maybe they won’t be as good. Then they’ll have a negative self-view. Then there is a whole thing about effort. If you have a fixed mindset, you think, “Well I’d better not put in a lot of effort, because if I put in a lot of effort and I still don’t do well, it really means I’m no good.” But if you have a growth mindset, you think, “Well, I’d better put in more effort and I’ll do better and I’ll learn and I’ll grow.” The last piece of the whole thing is that she’s found that if you make people aware of these differences and you give them enough input about it, you can move people from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. That’s really what the whole book is about, trying to get people to think critically about their mindset and come to one that actually has better consequences for them. You shouldn’t say, “You’re such a good artist.” You can praise their efforts – you can say, “I really like how hard you worked on this picture,” or, “This picture really has a lot of ideas in it.” Or something concrete about the picture. But when you attach it to the child, it’s not good. Withholding of positive response, that’s not good either. It’s also not good when parents say, “I knew you could do it all along,” because that undercuts the whole achievement. It’s a minefield out there for parents… I see the fixed mindset as an essentialist view of intelligence. I don’t know if Dweck ever says that, but that’s what I think about it. She gives lot of examples. You can actually go to her website, and you can take the test and find out what your mindset is. There are about a dozen questions like: “Imagine a student who receives an excellent grade on a maths test. How much of the grade is due to hard work and how much is due to maths ability?” If you’re someone who thinks it’s 90% maths ability, you probably have a fixed mindset. It’s interesting, because Dweck talks about how she used to be of a fixed mindset, and about her own evolution. I certainly was. I have very clear memories of being essentialist about gender and about intelligence as a young child. When I reflect back on the messages that I got from my parents, it was very much fixed mindset – you’re either good at it or you’re not. The fixed mindset does feel very right to me, but when you read the book, she just has example after example of how flawed it is…"

"Before social science popularisers like Malcolm Gladwell got there, there was Carol Dweck – a consummate scientist who gave us real information and important insights into how human character develops. This book can help you learn how to raise motivated and compassionate children and help them become adults with grit, resilience and compassion. She’s not just talking about cultural trends, this book is grounded in rigorous social science. None of these books are particularly accessible, but if you can get through Mindset you will have processed valuable insight into teaching your child to overcome obstacles and setbacks. The ability to focus and move forward – those soft skills are critical aspects of education. We must praise effort and not accomplishment. We must teach kids to fight for the things that don’t come easily. Grit is a key to success in school and in life."