Growth Mindset

I’ve been reading this book, Mindset: the new psychology of success by Carol Dweck. It’s been on my list of books to read for several years now and I’m finally catching up on the backlog.

What finally brought it to the top of the list was finding out that this book is forming the basis of the corporate culture at the newly reborn Microsoft since Satya Nadella took the reins. Understanding what has changed at Microsoft to transform the company over the last while from a place that didn’t appeal to me at all just a few years ago, into a vibrant and positive company is interesting.

The quick takeaway from the book is the distinction between having a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. These are not innate but are learned beliefs about various aspects of ourselves and others. For example, you might believe that IQ is a basic measurement of our core ability that doesn’t change. On the other hand, you might believe that IQ scores can change based on learning and training. These distinctions exist across a wide variety of our beliefs – Leadership, salesmanship, introversion, extroversion, personality, sports skills, music talent.

The book re-enforced things which I believed to be inherently true, but framed the distinction between fixed and growth mindsets in a way that shone a light on people and interactions I have had in the past. And in that regard, I hope that it will help to make me more conscious of the distinction of foundational beliefs in future conversations

Highly recommended book, which is becoming more important than ever as tribalism has reduced our ability to understand different perspectives.