#59 Entity Mindset vs Incremental Mindset

ByLukas
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Do you believe you’re good at something solely because of talent, invalidating all the work you’re putting in?

Or do you believe you can change the course of your life, and let your daily actions shape who you are?

The American psychologist and author of the book “Mindset” Carol Dweck describes how the way you think about your abilities can make or break your success in life:

  • Entity (fixed) mindset: “I’m good at languages, I’m bad at math”
  • Incremental (growth) mindset: “I worked hard on this, I’m learning, I’m discovering how to do this”

An entity mindset makes you run into a wall

When things get tough, people with an entity mindset often give up, because they don’t truly believe they can get much better.

After all,I if you believe it’s all about innate ability, then why make any effort to develop strengths or weaknesses?

An entity mindset also leads to fear of failure and perfectionism. If you’re believed to have an innate, fixed talent that’s set in stone, you’ll constantly need to live up to an unreasonably high standard for that particular talent.

An incremental mindset makes you thrive

People with an incremental mindset, on the other hand, thrive in tough situations: they know that through perseverance and a focus on daily practice and perseverance they can develop their skills and talents.

Even if predisposition plays an important role, switching to an incremental mindset will always make you feel better about yourself and your daily actions.

And while education and childhood experiences have a large impact on your mindset – you can always change your mind – by changing your actions.

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    #48 Volume matters

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    The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes (the “vital few”).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

    I’m okay with publishing 80% rubbish if that’s what it takes to stumble upon something good.

    But if only 20% of what I publish is any good, and I publish one post a week, then on average, I’ll only publish something insightful once every five weeks.

    If I publish once a day, then on average, I’ll publish something insightful more than once a week.

    This is why I’m okay with publishing a daily blog post.

    It’ also why I write pages and pages of stream-of-consciousness journaling every day, most of it rubbish, whining, scattered thoughts, if that’s what it takes to get to that one insight or breakthrough. Sculpting away, day by day.

    Write more rubbish, and you’ll write more good stuff too.

    Volume matters.

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    #87 AI Raises the Bar

    ByLukas
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    What do we do when AI can cobble together in seconds essays that take us hours (or days) to write – not even counting years of practice?

    Maybe it just raises the bar for us – requiring is to make new work that continues to stand out from AI-generated content.

    As things stand, that’s still possible.

    But what happens when the bar is set so high that our human brains can’t jump over it anymore, even with a lifetime of practice?

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    #8 Musenküsse

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    klimt-the-kiss-musenkuss
    Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss (1907-1908).

    der Musenkuss (German) The kiss of the Muse

    Creativity becomes much easier if you see it as a game of finding new ways of describing what has always been there.

    Observing, rather than inventing.

    It’s liberating. Because now the game changes from pulling ideas out of thin air to a game of discovery. Observation. Paying attention. Building upon what’s already discovered, then connecting the dots in way nobody else has.

    Most of all: listening, when the muse finally arrives and visits you for a kiss.

    There’s this voice in my mind
    Impossible to ignore
    And yet I fill my head with noise
    Drowning out
    What deep down I know to be true
    Do I even want to admit
    That this song in my heart
    Is not about me
    But about you?

    P.S.: I’ve observed the same principle in language learning (and wrote a book about the consequences of this mindset shift).

    Which begs the question…

    Where else would we do better if we observed a bit more, rather than trying to invent from scratch?

  • #484 Comfortable in uncomfortable misconceptions

    ByLukas

    Even when the cure is available, we never let our body heal, because what would we do if we couldn’t complain about our ailments anymore?

    Even when true love presents itself, we push it away, because what would we do if we can’t complain about partners leaving us anymore?

    Even when friends and family show support, we don’t allow it, because what would we do if we can’t say anymore that everyone is out to screw us over?

    Would we rather stay stubborn? Would we rather stay comfortable in our uncomfortable misconceptions?

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