{"id":4658,"date":"2017-10-30T21:51:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T18:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=4658"},"modified":"2017-10-30T21:53:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T18:53:17","slug":"bill-gates-your-self-image-has-a-big-impact-on-how-you-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/4658\/bill-gates-your-self-image-has-a-big-impact-on-how-you-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates, Your self-image has a big impact on how you learn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck<\/a> first came to my attention a few years ago in a fascinating invention session on education with my friend Nathan Myrhvold, similar to the sessions Malcolm Gladwell described in his article \u201cIn the Air: Who says big ideas are rare?\u201d Dweck\u2019s research had a big impact on our thinking that day.<\/p>\n

And in the years since, Dweck and her research have helped my foundation colleagues and me understand more about the attitudes and habits that allow some students to persevere in school despite big challenges.<\/p>\n

Here is Dweck\u2019s thesis: Our genes influence our intelligence and talents, but these qualities are not fixed at birth. If you mistakenly believe that your capabilities derive from DNA and destiny, rather than practice and perseverance, then you operate with what Dweck calls a \u201cfixed mindset\u201d rather than a \u201cgrowth mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our parents and teachers exert a big influence on which mindset we adopt\u2014and that mindset, in turn, has a profound impact on how we learn and which paths we take in life.<\/p>\n

In experiment after experiment, Dweck has shown that the fixed mindset is a huge psychological roadblock\u2014regardless of whether you feel you were blessed with talent or not. If you have the fixed mindset and believe you were blessed with raw talent, you tend to spend a lot of time trying to validate your \u201cgift\u201d rather than cultivating it.<\/p>\n

To protect your self-identity as someone who\u2019s super smart or gifted, you often steer clear of tough challenges that might jeopardize that identity. Here\u2019s how Dweck puts it: \u201cFrom the point of view of the fixed mindset, effort is only for people with deficiencies\u2026. If you\u2019re considered a genius, a talent, or a natural\u2014then you have a lot to lose. Effort can reduce you.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have the fixed mindset and believe you lost the genetic lottery, you also have little incentive to work hard. Why bother putting in a lot of effort to learn a difficult concept if you\u2019ve convinced yourself that you\u2019re lousy at it and nothing is going to alter that basic equation?<\/p>\n

When I was visiting with community college students in Arizona, one young man said to me, \u201cI\u2019m one of the people who\u2019s not good at math.\u201d It kills me when I hear that kind of thing. I think about how different things might have been if he had been told consistently \u201cyou\u2019re very capable of learning this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, people with the growth mindset believe that basic qualities, including intelligence, can be strengthened like muscles. It\u2019s not that they believe that anyone can become the next Albert Einstein or Michael Jordan if they just work hard enough on their physics homework or fadeaway jumpers.<\/p>\n

Instead, in Dweck\u2019s words \u201cthey believe a person\u2019s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it\u2019s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.\u201d As a result, they have every incentive to take on tough challenges and seek out opportunities to improve.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons I loved Mindset<\/a> is because it\u2019s solutions-oriented. In the book\u2019s final chapter, Dweck describes the workshop she and her colleagues have developed to shift students from a fixed to a growth mindset. These workshops demonstrate that \u201cjust learning about the growth mindset can cause a big shift in the way people think about themselves and their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

My only criticism of the book is that Dweck slightly oversimplifies for her general audience. Contrary to the impression that Dweck creates here (but probably not in her academic papers), most of us are not purely fixed-mindset people or growth-mindset people. We\u2019re both.<\/p>\n

When I was reading the book, I realized that I have approached some things with a growth mindset (like bridge) while other things in a fixed mindset (like basketball).<\/p>\n

The greatest virtue of the book is that you can\u2019t help but ask yourself things like, \u201cWhich areas have I always looked at through a fixed-mindset lens?\u201d and \u201cIn what ways am I sending the wrong message to my children about mindset and effort?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to Dweck\u2019s skillful coaching, you\u2019re almost guaranteed to approach these tough questions with a growth mindset.<\/p>\n

Cf<\/em>. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success<\/a> at Amazon.<\/p>\n

_______
\nExcerpts from an article by Bill Gates, GatesNotes<\/a>, December, 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck first came to my attention a few years ago in a fascinating invention session on education with my friend Nathan Myrhvold, similar to the sessions Malcolm Gladwell described in his article \u201cIn the Air: Who says big ideas are rare?\u201d Dweck\u2019s research had a big impact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[15,5],"tags":[569,228,1739],"class_list":["post-4658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-picks","category-education","tag-bill-gates","tag-learning","tag-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}