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Mindset

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book cover image and link to amazon

This book was recommended by William Belcher after talking about similar topics during our review process. I hadn't heard of this book before, but the concept seemed powerful and the reviews were good. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. This book, similar to others in the book club list, is a great paragraph or essay that has been filled out to book length. The concept is powerful and worth understanding. I'll do my best to summarize to save you the read.

There are two kinds of mindset that are essentially mutually exclusive: fixed and growth.

  • A fixed mindset is the one where you believe that you are born with a certain number of skills, talents, and abilities. You are essentially unable to change this, and are stuck playing the hand which you were dealt.
  • A growth mindset is essentially the opposite; you can grow and change your skills, talents, and abilities through hard work and practice. Someone with a growth mindset sees the world as a place where they can grow and change and become a continuously better version of themselves.

In summary:

fixed mindset bad, growth mindset good.

a very long book in a cozy study room

Now imagine you read another 300 pages with sentences similar to the following:

  1. Take the story of Carol, she got bad grades because she had a fixed mindset. When taught the growth mindset, her grades improved.
  2. Rob played sports and wasn't good until he learned the growth mindset. Then he was good.
  3. X was an artist/athlete/CEO/parent/husband/wife/teacher/manager/etc. They had a fixed mindset and were bad at it. When they learned the growth mindset, they were good at it.
  4. Y was an artist/athlete/CEO/parent/husband/wife/teacher/manager/etc. and they weren't born being awesome, but had to work hard at it and eventually became awesome.

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