Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
medium-paced
i read this for school but wasn’t a fan of the format used
Carol Dweck is an incredible researcher who also knows how to translate her research into real-world impact. Love her work and love her book!
I think how the author describes fixed mindset and growth mindset in this book is too simple, even though humans are very complex. As if people with a fixed mindset will always flop, and vice versa for a growth mindset.
The first chapter was good, but everything afterwards was just repeating the same thing over and over again just in different words. Was not a huge fan (read it for a class)
informative
reflective
Okay-so the ideas were good, but you don't need to get the book to understand them. Here, I'll save you the trouble: There are two types of mindsets, the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. The fixed mindset believes that traits are fixed, that you are born with a certain amount of ability in anything. This belief leads you to not only give up too easily, since you think it's "just not your thing," but it also discourages you from working hard, because anything you're actually good at should come naturally. On the other hand, the growth mindset finds that everything is changeable, that with hard work and the right amount of work you can achieve anything. Dweck then goes on to list a ton of examples where this is true, and probably 30 pages in it begins to just sound like an overzealous, poorly written advertisement for this book. Honestly it is not until the last 30 pages or so until there are actually real tips on how to improve your mindset (oh, and also the mini "Improve Your Mindset" blurbs at the ends of the chapters).
A few things I did find interesting:
-Dweck mentions this study that teenage/ young adult girls struggle with criticism because at a young age they are constantly praised and told that everything they do is adorable. That belief that girls are "fragile" and need to be coddled more than boys, who are constantly chastised for being messy or too rough creates this expectation that girls must always be prim and proper. She tells a mini anecdote about how once a guy friend told her she was a slob in a very friendly way, but she immediately thought, "What am i doing wrong?" But for most guys, that's a normal joke they hear on a normal basis.
-In the business side of things (and I'm sure many other things), leading by example really counts. If you have a fixed mindset and are constantly trying to boost your ego, all your workers will fall in line behind you, not taking as many risks just so they can never fail.
-Praise for children is good, but the type of praise is essential to their success. Rather than saying, "You're so smart!" when they get 100% on their math test, tell them, "Wow! You must have worked very hard," because that praises their effort. In the first example, you are praising their inherent talent, essentially saying they don't need to work hard to do well-they are just fixedly that smart.
-If you want to get something done, set a specific time, place, method of doing it. If you just say you'll do it later, you'll keep putting it off until tomorrow, next week, next month, but if there's a specific time and place, it becomes harder to ignore the task.
So I summarized the book for you. Like I said, the ideas are very interesting. I know I have a lot of fixed mindset in me, and I still don't fully agree with all the examples she gave supporting the growth mindset. I also believe in biology and genetics that truly some people are only able to reach a certain potential, BUT I also believe that having too fixed of a mindset will stop you from achieving your fullest potential. Not a long or arduous read, but it definitely gets tedious from page 30-100, and then just a little repetitive until the last chapter. I guess it's one of those books that all the professionals and high achievers have read, so you might as well, though then again my summary pretty much does it.
A few things I did find interesting:
-Dweck mentions this study that teenage/ young adult girls struggle with criticism because at a young age they are constantly praised and told that everything they do is adorable. That belief that girls are "fragile" and need to be coddled more than boys, who are constantly chastised for being messy or too rough creates this expectation that girls must always be prim and proper. She tells a mini anecdote about how once a guy friend told her she was a slob in a very friendly way, but she immediately thought, "What am i doing wrong?" But for most guys, that's a normal joke they hear on a normal basis.
-In the business side of things (and I'm sure many other things), leading by example really counts. If you have a fixed mindset and are constantly trying to boost your ego, all your workers will fall in line behind you, not taking as many risks just so they can never fail.
-Praise for children is good, but the type of praise is essential to their success. Rather than saying, "You're so smart!" when they get 100% on their math test, tell them, "Wow! You must have worked very hard," because that praises their effort. In the first example, you are praising their inherent talent, essentially saying they don't need to work hard to do well-they are just fixedly that smart.
-If you want to get something done, set a specific time, place, method of doing it. If you just say you'll do it later, you'll keep putting it off until tomorrow, next week, next month, but if there's a specific time and place, it becomes harder to ignore the task.
So I summarized the book for you. Like I said, the ideas are very interesting. I know I have a lot of fixed mindset in me, and I still don't fully agree with all the examples she gave supporting the growth mindset. I also believe in biology and genetics that truly some people are only able to reach a certain potential, BUT I also believe that having too fixed of a mindset will stop you from achieving your fullest potential. Not a long or arduous read, but it definitely gets tedious from page 30-100, and then just a little repetitive until the last chapter. I guess it's one of those books that all the professionals and high achievers have read, so you might as well, though then again my summary pretty much does it.
Once in a while, you'll come across a book that challenges everything you know and assume about yourself. And it will change the way you think. This is one such book. I really appreciate how Carol Dweck gets her point across so clearly and so succinctly, with every chapter creating impact. I saw several instances of me in the examples she quoted in her book - I've always had more of a fixed mindset. But now, i see the true value of learning to adopt a growth mindset, thanks to her book.
This book honestly changed my life. I was raised with the idea that you were either naturally talented at something, or you just weren’t meant to do it. Everything felt fixed in life— my intelligence, my personality, the success of my friendships and relationships. Dweck helped me understand my own power in my life, and the ability of the human mind to grow and change if you have the right mindset to do so.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced