False growth mindset
Ψευδής νοοτροπία ανάπτυξης
The version in which effort is treated as the whole answer and cut loose from method. Effort with no strategy behind it that could work is still effort, and persisting is not evidence of anything by itself. Naming it removes an obligation rather than adding one: nobody owes anyone endurance.
How to spot it
Ask what your method predicted and whether it happened. If you cannot answer, what is being defended is the effort and not the plan, and the effort was never the thing that had to be right.
The research behind the term
The term is not our invention. It comes from published research, and what follows is what that research found — our own synthesis of the published abstract, not a translation of the original.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success — πηγή
What it found
- The central distinction is between the "fixed" mindset, which treats abilities as unchangeable, and the "growth mindset", which treats them as cultivable.
- Success in school, at work, in sport and in the arts is decisively influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.
- Those who start out more able do not always end up more able.
- The revised edition introduces the notion of the "false growth mindset" and extends the framework from the individual to the culture of an organisation.
How it found it
A book for a general audience presenting the author's line of research on implicit theories of ability. Note: the literature has since critically debated the size of the effect of mindset interventions, so the value of the work is primarily conceptual.
What it means for resilience
Failure hurts the same in both mindsets; what changes is what it means — evidence of a limit, or information for the next step.
Practised in
The term does not stay a definition. It appears inside missions where the pattern happens in real time and you have to recognise it as it happens to you.
The Thing You Said You Would Finish
Sources
Every claim on this page maps to published research. The citations link to the original source.
- Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success — Source on penguinrandomhouse.com