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A review by bookph1le
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
4.0
3.5 stars for the book, 5 starts for the mindset concept
I fully, wholeheartedly believe in mindset. I've seen it in practice, both in myself and in others, and I love that so many teachers are embracing the concept. I was once a very fixed mindset sort of person, and while that can be reassuring because your failures are never really your own (in your mind, that is), it's a limiting way to be and, as the anecdotes in this book show, it has the potential to be extremely damaging.
I think the reason why fixed mindsets are so prevalent in the U.S. is because we have a deeply flawed view of mistakes and failure. Failure is an essential part of the learning process. Thanks to failure, we enjoy many technologies that once seemed impossible (flight being one--imagine if the Wright brothers had allowed failure to dissuade them). On one hand, we recognize this and pay lip service to the idea that inspiration is 99% perspiration, but on the other we have such a paranoid fear of failure that it colors everything we do. Why do teachers help their students cheat on standardized tests? Why do corporations become so hidebound that their refusal to innovate becomes their own downfall? It's because we fear failure the same way we fear the end of the world, as if both mean the annihilation of society as we know it.
Embracing a growth mindset frees us of that fear. It empowers us to try something, think "huh, that didn't work", and then try something else, and something else, until we figure out what does work. All along the way, we learn in a deep, meaningful way that lets us take another step closer to mastery.
Basically, what this book points out is that we need to stop considering failure as a character flaw and we need to rid ourselves of the magical belief that things happen without effort. That's an uphill battle in a culture that respects genius without veneration for the hard work that results in genius, not to mention acknowledging the deep, personal satisfaction that comes from wrestling with something.
So why the somewhat lackluster rating? While the anecdotes are interesting and illuminating, I wish this book had emphasized the research Dweck has done. What she's talking about here is provable, something I know more from reading other books that cite her research than from reading this one. I've known of and admired her research for a long time, so it was rather disappointing to go to the source and not find a deep discussion of her research. This is more of a self-help book than anything, which isn't bad, but I'd have liked her to use more hard data to back up what she says in this book. Her research speaks for itself so clearly that it's hard for me to imagine that anyone can read about it and still doubt it.
But if people don't believe it, well, they're welcome to their fixed mindset. I'll hang with the growth mindset people, happily banging away at my interests, failing, and learning a great deal in the process.
I fully, wholeheartedly believe in mindset. I've seen it in practice, both in myself and in others, and I love that so many teachers are embracing the concept. I was once a very fixed mindset sort of person, and while that can be reassuring because your failures are never really your own (in your mind, that is), it's a limiting way to be and, as the anecdotes in this book show, it has the potential to be extremely damaging.
I think the reason why fixed mindsets are so prevalent in the U.S. is because we have a deeply flawed view of mistakes and failure. Failure is an essential part of the learning process. Thanks to failure, we enjoy many technologies that once seemed impossible (flight being one--imagine if the Wright brothers had allowed failure to dissuade them). On one hand, we recognize this and pay lip service to the idea that inspiration is 99% perspiration, but on the other we have such a paranoid fear of failure that it colors everything we do. Why do teachers help their students cheat on standardized tests? Why do corporations become so hidebound that their refusal to innovate becomes their own downfall? It's because we fear failure the same way we fear the end of the world, as if both mean the annihilation of society as we know it.
Embracing a growth mindset frees us of that fear. It empowers us to try something, think "huh, that didn't work", and then try something else, and something else, until we figure out what does work. All along the way, we learn in a deep, meaningful way that lets us take another step closer to mastery.
Basically, what this book points out is that we need to stop considering failure as a character flaw and we need to rid ourselves of the magical belief that things happen without effort. That's an uphill battle in a culture that respects genius without veneration for the hard work that results in genius, not to mention acknowledging the deep, personal satisfaction that comes from wrestling with something.
So why the somewhat lackluster rating? While the anecdotes are interesting and illuminating, I wish this book had emphasized the research Dweck has done. What she's talking about here is provable, something I know more from reading other books that cite her research than from reading this one. I've known of and admired her research for a long time, so it was rather disappointing to go to the source and not find a deep discussion of her research. This is more of a self-help book than anything, which isn't bad, but I'd have liked her to use more hard data to back up what she says in this book. Her research speaks for itself so clearly that it's hard for me to imagine that anyone can read about it and still doubt it.
But if people don't believe it, well, they're welcome to their fixed mindset. I'll hang with the growth mindset people, happily banging away at my interests, failing, and learning a great deal in the process.