“Mindset” by Carol S Dweck- Actually Amazing?

Carol S. Dweck is a renowned American psychologist and one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of personality, motivation, and development. She is best known for her groundbreaking work on the concept of “mindset,” which she explores in depth in her influential book by the same name. 

Since its publication in 2006, “Mindset” has had a transformative impact across education, business, sports, and personal development worldwide. The book introduced millions to the powerful distinction between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, shifting how people think about talent, intelligence, and achievement.

It’s time to dive right in, see what this book’s really about, why it’s so well-known, and if it’s the right book for your library- with of course, no spoilers.

Summary

In this book that has made an impact on readers worldwide, “Mindset” by Carol Dweck aims to showcase a mass phenomena seen in the modern world which she refers to as a “fixed” mindset, which in our modern world, is present in education, sports, the workplace, and in different relationships, including parenting. We get to explore the fixed mindset, how many of us unconsciously have it, its limitations, exploring how in today’s world, a different approach and a growth-oriented mindset can benefit individuals and society as a whole. 

The author calls this progress-oriented mindset the "growth mindset." The difference behind these different mindsets range from simple day-to-day perceptions of different events, how the influence the decisions we make, how it shapes our long term choices and who we are.

It aims to draw the differences between this “fixed mindset” and a “growth mindset”, helping us learn to embrace our unique skills and qualities, and also serves as a guide to accommodating a growth-oriented mindset in our own personal lives. 

Several individuals such as Bill Gates often refer to this book when discussing educational reform and youth development. 

Is this book for you?

The core ideas behind "Mindset" are actually very straightforward, however, to ACTUALLY get how these mindsets work for- or against somebody in daily life, the book has dedicated sections for how it all works in different situations. 

For example, the book explores the global educational structure today, and how it silently propagates the fixed mindset amongst students, parents, and educators alike. 

Aside from this example, there are extensive parts of the book dedicated to business, or interpersonal relationships, and even the sports world. 

Personally, I feel that this book is not only a good addition to the reading list for general readers or psychology enjoyers, but also readers who would like to explore the impact of mindsets in contexts that are important to them.  

Personal Thoughts

Very Thought-Provoking 

One of the reasons why “Mindset” is popular amongst readers is because since the very introduction, it doesn’t just talk about mindsets; it simultaneously urges one to explore their own. 

For instance, you’re given an example where you get a bad score on a math test. The idea here is to first show how a person with a fixed mindset will react negatively and perhaps create presumptions like “I’m not good at math” and that on the other hand, someone with a growth mindset will consider this setback as a learning experience.

At the same time, it makes us envision ourselves in that situation, to be honest with ourselves and ask ourselves what we would do in this case, or perhaps think about what we may have actually done in the past when this happened.

The reasons why these kind of hypothetical situations work, I feel, is because majority of them are those occurrences that just happen sometimes. They’re just really simple and interesting to think about on a deeper level, and it’s a pretty good way to correlate real life with what’s in the book. 

Case studies and examples 

One thing that felt quite unique about the book was that it had a lot of hypothetical everyday examples, instances from the life of the author, and well-known examples from the lives of CEOs,  athletes, and other individuals, and it consisted of studies and experiments conducted by the author. 

Carol Dweck is, in fact, a professor of psychology from Stanford, so it’s quite interesting to see some of her findings. 

There’s one I quite liked in particular, especially because it was brought up again and again across the book. Here, Dweck observes college students’ interest in chemistry, which she states is “a course where the average exam grade is C+, even for students who’ve rarely seen anything less than an A.”

“Most students started out pretty interested in chemistry. Yet over the semester, something happened. Students with the fixed mindset stayed interested only when they did well right away. Those who found it difficult showed a big drop in their interest and enjoyment. If it wasn’t a testimony to their intelligence, they couldn’t enjoy it.

“The harder it gets,” reported one student, “the more I have to force myself to read the book and study for the tests. I was excited about chemistry before, but now every time I think about it, I get a bad feeling in my stomach.”

In contrast, students with the growth mindset continued to show the same high level of interest even when they found the work very challenging. “It’s a lot more difficult for me than I thought it would be, but it’s what I want to do, so that only makes me more determined. When they tell me I can’t, it really gets me going.” Challenge and interest went hand in hand.”

Truth is, more than 50% of the book is, in fact, examples and case studies. Perhaps this is because the core ideas themselves have been given in a quite lucid and concise manner, but each of the examples felt quite relevant; and engaging.

Favourite quote

“A few modern philosophers…assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism….With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.”

-Alfred Binet, inventor of the IQ test

Conclusion

“Mindset” was quite an interesting read for me, and I really enjoyed it. It strikes the balance between the psychology behind everything, studies on people such as CEOs, atheletes, and inventors, and how it all ties up in our daily life. 

I’d strongly give this book a 

4.5/5