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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
Good information, but I found myself bored by the repetition of one case study after another throughout this book.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
My friend Debbie read this book a few years ago at Camp Mather and I've been meaning to read it ever since. I finally got around to it and I'm glad I did.
Carol's Dweck's basic premise is simple. There are two types of mindsets -- a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Someone with a fixed mindset believes you're either a success or you're not, and there's not much you can do about it. Any setback is a personal failure. A person with a growth mindset believes that you're always developing and growing. Rather than a personal failure, a setback is an opportunity for growth. Dweck explores how this plays out in sports, business, and academic. She even delves into personal life a little.
I just read Justice Sotomayor's memoir "My Beloved World" and was struck by how she exemplifies the growth mindset -- taking up tough challenges and using what others might see as failure to focus her learning and benefit from her mistakes. I would particularly recommend this book to teens, although it's not really the type of book that would naturally attract young adults. I ended up buying the audiobook and playing it in the car at strategic times.
Carol's Dweck's basic premise is simple. There are two types of mindsets -- a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Someone with a fixed mindset believes you're either a success or you're not, and there's not much you can do about it. Any setback is a personal failure. A person with a growth mindset believes that you're always developing and growing. Rather than a personal failure, a setback is an opportunity for growth. Dweck explores how this plays out in sports, business, and academic. She even delves into personal life a little.
I just read Justice Sotomayor's memoir "My Beloved World" and was struck by how she exemplifies the growth mindset -- taking up tough challenges and using what others might see as failure to focus her learning and benefit from her mistakes. I would particularly recommend this book to teens, although it's not really the type of book that would naturally attract young adults. I ended up buying the audiobook and playing it in the car at strategic times.
A good, solid intro to a valuable Life Philosophy! A book about the dichotomy between "growth" and "fixed" mindsets: growth mindsets praise hard work and effort, fixed mindsets believe some people are smart and others not. LAMBS AND GOATS, PEOPLE.
This is definitely something that anyone working in or near academia or other socially-certified "Smart People" would do well to read and absorb. I couldn't really buy aalll Carol Dweck's applications; the book covers these mindsets' effects on work, play (sports), relationships. Mostly because this mindset stuff ALSO overlaps with cognitive behavioral stuff, and cognitive errors feel more all-encompassing (to me, at least).
But that is a small critique. I did find this v useful, and goddamn do I wish I had had this book both during undergrad (where I did very well and unhelpfully just assumed it was cuz I had DA SMARTZ - but really I never challenged myself too much) and during grad school (which WAS challenging, and convinced me I was A STUPID and had a much smaller "full potential" than I previously thought). I noticed how only recently, when I taught myself to code in the privacy and seclusion of my home (boy, was that a game-changer on many fronts!), did I stop my reflexive "freezing" whenever something really intellectually challenging would appear, and I could really experience LEARNING, TRUE LEARNING. I'm also trying to apply the growth mindset stuff at work: when someone asks me something I don't know, instead of going into panic freeze mode ("I should know this, shit, what's wrong with me"), I attempt to go into "I have no idea what you're talking about and don't know the answer, BUT I SHALL LEARN!". That has been very, very helpful. It is a hard habit to break.
In fact, I think the best and most interesting part of this book is its application to pedagogy and learning - a process that is very interesting indeed. And also interesting and heartening (and only obvious once you start losing your fixed mindset!) is how incredibly hamstringing the fixed mindset is, and how much MORE you can get done and how much better you can get at your job with the growth mindset.
So yeah. It's good. Learning is fun. Growth mindset-learning is better.
This is definitely something that anyone working in or near academia or other socially-certified "Smart People" would do well to read and absorb. I couldn't really buy aalll Carol Dweck's applications; the book covers these mindsets' effects on work, play (sports), relationships. Mostly because this mindset stuff ALSO overlaps with cognitive behavioral stuff, and cognitive errors feel more all-encompassing (to me, at least).
But that is a small critique. I did find this v useful, and goddamn do I wish I had had this book both during undergrad (where I did very well and unhelpfully just assumed it was cuz I had DA SMARTZ - but really I never challenged myself too much) and during grad school (which WAS challenging, and convinced me I was A STUPID and had a much smaller "full potential" than I previously thought). I noticed how only recently, when I taught myself to code in the privacy and seclusion of my home (boy, was that a game-changer on many fronts!), did I stop my reflexive "freezing" whenever something really intellectually challenging would appear, and I could really experience LEARNING, TRUE LEARNING. I'm also trying to apply the growth mindset stuff at work: when someone asks me something I don't know, instead of going into panic freeze mode ("I should know this, shit, what's wrong with me"), I attempt to go into "I have no idea what you're talking about and don't know the answer, BUT I SHALL LEARN!". That has been very, very helpful. It is a hard habit to break.
In fact, I think the best and most interesting part of this book is its application to pedagogy and learning - a process that is very interesting indeed. And also interesting and heartening (and only obvious once you start losing your fixed mindset!) is how incredibly hamstringing the fixed mindset is, and how much MORE you can get done and how much better you can get at your job with the growth mindset.
So yeah. It's good. Learning is fun. Growth mindset-learning is better.
There's just a lot of other books I want to read, and the first 25 pages already felt pretty repetitive and were making points that were not new or unfamiliar to me. Maybe a book to come back to when I'm feeling in a rut, but it's not hitting right now.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Really impactful and enjoyable read
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I liked this book, it did a good job at differentiating itself from other books within its genre. The one issue I had with it was the black and white manor in which the author approached the “fixed” vs “growth” mindsets. In the book, it’s implied that you have either one or the other but for the most part, I think it varies depending on the situation. Other than that, it was worth the read… it was a little long, but still worth it.
challenging
hopeful
informative
medium-paced