I chose to read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dr. Carol S. Dweck.
1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?
In each chapter, Dr. Dweck compares two mindsets: Growth and fixed. At first, I thought it was going to be 8 chapters of her preaching how the growth mindset was better because being open-minded and learning from you failures is vital to success and all that jazz, but I was wrong. She realistically explains how each can lead to both success and failure in their own right, though inevitably growth mindsets are the way to go.
2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
In chapter 4, the author talks about what makes the mindset of a 'champion'. It's in a sports context, but it heavily reminded me of entrepreneurship. It's all about how those with growth mindsets find success in doing their best and find setbacks motivating. Entrepreneurship is all about coming up with hundreds, if not thousands of ideas that will ultimately fail, but not letting that deter you.
3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
It would involve enforcing a growth mindset by both reflecting on past failures or setbacks that you moved on from as well as anticipating any possible failures in the future. It's grim, but important to prepare for the worst.
4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?
The most eye-opening thing I read was about how we are conditioned in school to believe we are 'smart' in subjects we pick up quickly and 'dumb' in subjects that take longer to learn. Praising children's intelligence harms their motivation and performance. They'll associate victory with being smart and failure with being dumb, which could ultimately make failing a much more traumatic process than it needs to be. Growing up as a perfectionist, it's almost sad how true this is! I'm still trying to unlearn my association between failure and being seen as a fool.
Haley,
ReplyDeleteIm glad you chose this book because after reading your reflection I am intrigued and may read it down the road. The comments you make about mindset sound interesting and i would love to know more about psychology. Im also interested to read what the author has to say about the way we are conditioned in school. This sounds like a great read!
Hey again Haley! This actually sounds like a good read; I honestly didn't chose it myself for the same reason you reared (that it would be a bunch of chapters preaching about the 'correct' mindset) but I'm glad we were both wrong. Good thing you found it useful and I guess that means in the future I won't be so quick to judge a book by it's title. See what I did there? BADUM TSSS (that's my impression of that comedy drum noise).
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