review of book mindset

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Book Reviews on...

Mindset: the new psychology of success, by carol dweck.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, the renowned Stanford University psychologist who discovered a truly groundbreaking idea–the power of our mindset.

Recommendations from our site

“Without exaggeration, I’ve never met a CEO who didn’t have Mindset on their bookshelf. It resonates with people who have become successful because the belief that your abilities can grow is foundational to their achievements.” Read more...

The best books on Character Development

Angela Duckworth , Psychologist

“This is great. It’s a self-help book, but it’s written by one of the most well-respected social psychologists. Dweck has done really groundbreaking work over several decades, and found that there are differences in how people think about success and achievement.” Read more...

The best books on Essentialism

Susan Gelman , Psychologist

“This book can teach you to raise motivated and compassionate children and help them become adults with grit, resilience and compassion.” Read more...

The best books on Educating Your Child

Peg Tyre , Journalist

The book, according to the author

“In my work I’ve discovered that people can have different mindsets about their talents and abilities, and that these mindsets make a big difference. Some people believe that their talents and abilities are fixed traits – they have a certain amount and that’s that. We call this a fixed mindset. But other people have a growth mindset. They believe that their talents and abilities can be developed through hard work, perseverance and mentoring.

We’ve found that when people have a fixed mindset they often shy away from challenges. For them, deficiencies are permanent and so they are afraid to reveal them. People with fixed mindsets are also not as resilient in the face of setbacks because, again, they see setbacks as impugning their underlying abilities. Challenge-seeking and resilience are key factors in success. As a result, people with fixed mindsets often don’t achieve as much in the long run.

Seeing effort as something shameful is a liability because effort is what takes our abilities to fruition. Since I wrote Mindset I got letters from people who were child prodigies. As youngsters they were told, “You’re so smart you’ll be this, you’ll be that,” but effort was never mentioned. In fact, they thought their claim to fame was that they didn’t need effort to reach greatness. They were mistaken, and as a result they never made much of their abilities. Ability alone does not take you to success. You actually have to work for it.”

Carol Dweck, speaking to Five Books

Other books by Carol Dweck

Self theories by carol dweck, our most recommended books, war and peace by leo tolstoy, on liberty by john stuart mill, middlemarch by george eliot, nineteen eighty-four by george orwell, the confessions by augustine (translated by maria boulding), republic by plato.

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When more teachers have the tools they need to reach their students and teach math in a way that resonates, I’m confident that more of their students will graduate with a love of math just like mine.

Mindset Over Matter

Revisiting Carol Dweck’s fascinating work on the growth mindset.

Even as my glasses have gotten smaller and hopefully cooler over the years, I am still a proud member of Nerd Nation. As such, I read a lot of books—usually more than 50 a year. Many of the books I review on Gates Notes are recent releases, because I figure people are generally more interested in hearing about newer works. But I also like to revisit older books that feel especially important or relevant. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006), by the Stanford psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck, is one of those books.

Mindset first came to my attention a few years ago in a fascinating invention session on education with my friend Nathan Myhrvold, similar to the sessions Malcolm Gladwell described in his article “ In the Air: Who says big ideas are rare? ” Dweck’s research had a big impact on our thinking that day. And in the years since, Dweck and her research have helped my foundation colleagues and me understand more about the attitudes and habits that allow some students to persevere in school despite big challenges.

Here is Dweck’s thesis: Our genes influence our intelligence and talents, but these qualities are not fixed at birth. If you mistakenly believe that your capabilities derive from DNA and destiny, rather than practice and perseverance, then you operate with what Dweck calls a “fixed mindset” rather than a “growth mindset.” Our parents and teachers exert a big influence on which mindset we adopt—and that mindset, in turn, has a profound impact on how we learn and which paths we take in life.   

In experiment after experiment, Dweck has shown that the fixed mindset is a huge psychological roadblock—regardless of whether you feel you were blessed with talent or not. If you have the fixed mindset and believe you were blessed with raw talent, you tend to spend a lot of time trying to validate your “gift” rather than cultivating it. To protect your self-identity as someone who’s super smart or gifted, you often steer clear of tough challenges that might jeopardize that identity. Here’s how Dweck puts it: “From the point of view of the fixed mindset, effort is only for people with deficiencies…. If you’re considered a genius, a talent, or a natural—then you have a lot to lose. Effort can reduce you.”

If you have the fixed mindset and believe you lost the genetic lottery, you also have little incentive to work hard. Why bother putting in a lot of effort to learn a difficult concept if you’ve convinced yourself that you’re lousy at it and nothing is going to alter that basic equation? When I was visiting with community college students in Arizona, one young man said to me, “I’m one of the people who’s not good at math.” It kills me when I hear that kind of thing. I think about how different things might have been if he had been told consistently “you’re very capable of learning this stuff.”

In contrast, people with the growth mindset believe that basic qualities, including intelligence, can be strengthened like muscles. It’s not that they believe that anyone can become the next Albert Einstein or Michael Jordan if they just work hard enough on their physics homework or fadeaway jumpers. Instead, in Dweck’s words “they believe a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.” As a result, they have every incentive to take on tough challenges and seek out opportunities to improve. 

One of the reasons I loved Mindset is because it’s solutions-oriented. In the book’s final chapter, Dweck describes the workshop she and her colleagues have developed to shift students from a fixed to a growth mindset. These workshops demonstrate that “just learning about the growth mindset can cause a big shift in the way people think about themselves and their lives.”

My only criticism of the book is that Dweck slightly oversimplifies for her general audience. Contrary to the impression that Dweck creates here (but probably not in her academic papers), most of us are not purely fixed-mindset people or growth-mindset people. We’re both. When I was reading the book, I realized that I have approached some things with a growth mindset (like bridge) while other things in a fixed mindset (like basketball).

The greatest virtue of the book is that you can’t help but ask yourself things like, “Which areas have I always looked at through a fixed-mindset lens?” and “In what ways am I sending the wrong message to my children about mindset and effort?” Thanks to Dweck’s skillful coaching, you’re almost guaranteed to approach these tough questions with a growth mindset.

I found an unintentional theme connecting them all.

Brave New Words paints an inspiring picture of AI in the classroom.

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Kristin Hannah’s wildly popular novel about an army nurse is eye-opening and inspiring.

This is my personal blog, where I share about the people I meet, the books I'm reading, and what I'm learning. I hope that you'll join the conversation.

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Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck Book Review

Carol S. Dweck describes in her “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” how the thoughts of our abilities can influence success. According to Dweck , people who think they have limited capabilities cannot succeed. On the other hand, those who believe there is no limitation to their abilities can excel in their life. This is one of the best books on discipline and self-growth. 

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Chapter Summaries:

On the contrary, those who believe that their skills are sharpened and strengthened by practicing are said to have a “growth mindset.” These two types of mindset play a significant role in developing our personal and professional lives. 

Meanwhile, people having a growth mindset can change their fate or strengthen their qualities. According to Dweck, this person works hard to achieve their true potential. And they also get the inspiration to face tough challenges and seek better opportunities. They do not give up easily; they learn from their mistakes. They take advantage of this opportunity to learn new things. They practice again and again and try new ways of overcoming their problems. 

What do famous people follow?

Famous people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Alva Edison, Isaac Newton, etc., did not get to the position overnight where they are now. Reaching their goal took them a long time and a massive effort. And all this was possible because they had a growth mindset. They failed again and again, but they never gave up. Instead, they learned from their mistake and climbed the ladder of success.

After that, they took this opportunity to try solving their problems differently. Thus, they got to learn different learning methods and apply the techniques.

Our parents and teachers play a huge role in molding our mindset. Whatever they teach us develops us to have either a fixed or a growth mindset.

This book contains some workshops designed by Dweck and her colleagues. These workshops will help students shift from a fixed to a growth mindset because only a growth mindset can help individuals reach their goals and make their lives successful. Therefore, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” is an appropriate book for success by knowing the human brain activities.

Most important message from the “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” book

1. how to describe a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset.

Fixed mindset:  People with a fixed mindset believe their biological traits control their talents and abilities. They do not try to improve their intelligence; instead, of blaming their destiny for being what they are.

Growth mindset:  People having a growth mindset think out of the box. They believe that they can sharpen and strengthen their talents by working hard. They believe that these qualities can be developed through experiences and practice. 

2. What does Dweck’s mindset theory suggest?

In “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” Carol S. Dweck explains how our mindset influences success. Dweck’s mindset theory suggests that beliefs can change how individuals behave and act. According to her, people who think their limited abilities cannot proceed much further. In other words, they are said to have a fixed mindset. On the other hand, people who have a growth mindset, i.e., believe that their abilities have no limitations, can improve their life by working hard.

Dweck developed some workshops along with her colleagues based on this mindset theory. These workshops will help students turn their fixed mindset into a growth mindset through efforts and facing challenges.

3. How does mindset affect others?

Mindset is nothing but the way we think about everything. People having a fixed mindset are easily discouraged when they face any obstacles. They give up and show interest in anything. On the contrary, people with a growth mindset try to overcome obstacles and reach their goals simultaneously. The effects of mindset can be explained through the hare and tortoise fable.

The hare was sure that he would be the one to win. So, he took some rest and slept during the race. Meanwhile, the tortoise kept running at its slow and steady pace, not knowing what would happen in the future. When the hare woke, he found that the tortoise had already crossed the finish line and won the race. 

The hare had a fixed mindset, believing his instinctive abilities would always help him win. On the other hand, the tortoise had a growth mindset. He thought he would win the race if he worked hard and kept running.

4. Who are the famous people with a growth mindset?

A growth mindset believes individuals can strengthen their talents by working hard and accepting challenges. Some of the famous people who possess a growth mindset are – 

Katy Perry: 

Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter, and television reality show judge. As a teenager, she used to sing in the church. Her family had to depend on church food to survive. She had been very unsuccessful at the beginning of her life as a singer. But she did not lose hope and worked hard. And now she is one of the Forbes “top-earning women” worldwide.

J. K. Rowling:

J. K. Rowling is well-known for her Harry Potter series. But she did not get into this position overnight. She faced so many rejections from different authors; she had been rejected from Oxford University. At a time, she lost her mother to Multiple Sclerosis; her marriage was also a failure. Yet, she had overcome all these problems to reach where she is today. And this all happened because of her growth mindset.

Michael Phelps:

Michael Phelps is the youngest male swimmer in the Olympics. He holds the world record for most medal wins. But he had to overcome so many problems in his life to get here. His parents divorced when he was nine. This left a significant impact on his mental health. He had to struggle with ADHD and depression for a long time. He even had the thoughts of ending his life. But he chose not to give up; all this was possible because he had a growth mindset.

5. How does the brain play into the mindset?

The human brain is made up of millions of cells called neurons. These neurons are connected and receive information or stimulus from the rest of the body. These neurons affect how the brain works by strength, number, and location. Whenever we gain some new experiences, the link or connections in the neurons change. As a result, new connections are formed by altering the neurons. This helps the brain grow smarter and develop a new mindset, and in this way, a new mindset is developed.

6. How do students with a growth mindset see their mistakes?

Students having a growth mindset take the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. As a result, they do not give up at all when they fail. Instead, they repeatedly practice to make things better and learn different ways in the process. 

Those who do not have a growth mindset take everything negatively whenever they face any failure. They lose hope every time there is an obstacle in front of them. But those with a growth mindset take up new challenges when they fail. They learn from their mistakes and try to overcome obstacles. They see mistakes as opportunities to do something better. 

7. What are the growth mindset principles in the new psychology of success?

According to researchers, some of the growth mindset principles are – 

• Acknowledge your mistakes: We must embrace our imperfections and learn from our mistakes.
• Take advantage of your challenges:  Whenever you face any challenge, take the opportunity to learn new things to get over your problems.
• Different learning methods: Find all the possible solutions to your problem and try to apply the solutions in different ways. 
• Don’t get discouraged: Your learning will always be different from others. So do not get discouraged easily if someone says you are learning it incorrectly. 
• Do not emphasize the result: Give more importance to what you learn. The result can be a one-time thing, but what you learn will stay forever.
• Never give up:  No matter how hard it is to reach your goal, never lose hope. Just keep on working on your goals.

 8. Ingrained vs. engrained

Ingrained and engrained are almost the same in meaning. Here, Ingrained means impressed by something more profoundly or permanently. A point of view or perception might be ingrained according to personal thinking. For example, as he has Parana thinking, we may make a few ingrained pieces of evidence to help him know the real matters.

Engrained is an alternative spelling of ingrained, which is rarely used and recognized. So, it is better to use ingrained rather than engrained.

9. Growth vs. development

Growth is a physical change that occurs in the individual body. On the other hand, development is the total growth of humans that happens throughout the whole life span. The development includes social, physical, emotional, intellectual, and other essential aspects of human life.

A growth mindset indicates: People believe their basic abilities can be increased through dedication and hard work. Therefore, the brain and intelligence are the critical starting point of a growth mindset- (Dweck, 2015).

A development mindset indicates: This is a way of thinking and searching the world, spreading the facilities for ongoing personal and social transformations- (Dweck, 2015).

10. How does the brain play into the mindset?

The brain is an integral part of the human mindset. Various paths in our brains change at different times. The brain is continually creating and destroying neural pathways. These neural paths help to choose decisions or help to make actions. Sometimes these pathways create a blog that causes various emotional and cognitive imbalances. We can ensure our well-being by creating a positive mindset with proper caring for our minds.

11. Mindset vs. mentality

My mindset defines what I am going to do. It can also be termed a cognitive map or preoperational mentality of performing any task. The mentality is a whole process of mindset. Our negative mentality can make hindrance in our mindset. At the same time, a positive mentality can create the right mindset. 

12. How to change mindset and behavior?

Mindset and behavior occur one after another. As we mentioned before, mindset is a preoperational period of doing any action. Behavior can be an action or response to mindset. For example, we are going to make a company. So first, we will make a perfect plan for our next program to succeed. The ideal plan is a mindset, and all other activities are behavior.

Our following behavior/actions will depend on our ways of mindset. Our behavior will change fruitfully if we can make an appropriate mindset through proper research such as problem-solving strategies , SWOT   analysis, etc. Successful behavior depends on a successful mindset. “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” is a practical book for everyone who wants to continue their lifetime success.

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Sam Thomas Davies

Mindset by Carol Dweck

Buy on Amazon: Print | Kindle | Audiobook

The Book in Three Sentences

• Skills can be cultivated through effort.
• People with a growth mindset thrive on challenges.
• The fixed mindset: “I can’t do it”. The growth mindset: “I can’t do it yet ”.

The Five Big Ideas

• The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.
• “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.”
• “People in a growth mindset don’t just seek challenge, they thrive on it.”
• “The growth mindset does allow people to love what they’re doing—and to continue to love it in the face of difficulties.”
• “Those with the growth mindset found success in doing their best, in learning and improving. And this is exactly what we find in the champions.”

Want a Free Copy of My Summary?

Mindset summary.

• “[Children with a growth mindset] knew that human qualities, such as intellectual skills, could be cultivated through effort.”
• “Not only were [the children with a growth mindset]not discouraged by failure, they didn’t even think they were failing. They thought they were learning”.
• “What are the consequences of thinking that your intelligence or personality is something you can develop, as opposed to something that is a fixed, deep-seated trait?”
• “Robert Sternberg, the present-day guru of intelligence, writes that the major factor in whether people achieve expertise ‘is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.’”
• “For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects how you lead your life.”
• “This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience”.
• “Why waste time proving over and over how great you are when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them?”
• “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.”
• “The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving.”
• “When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world—the world of fixed traits—success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other—the world of changing qualities—it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.”
• “Benjamin Barber, an eminent sociologist, once said, ‘I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures…. I divide the world into the learners and non-learners.’”
• “We gave fifth graders intriguing puzzles, which they all loved. But when we made them harder, children with the fixed mindset showed a big plunge in enjoyment.”
• “For [people with a growth mindset] it’s not about immediate perfection. It’s about learning something over time: confronting a challenge and making progress.”
• “‘Becoming is better than being’. The fixed mindset does not allow people the luxury of becoming. They have to already be.”
• “People with the growth mindset know that it takes time for potential to flower.”
• “College students, after doing poorly on a test, were given a chance to look at tests of other students. Those in the growth mindset looked at the tests of people who had done far better than they had. As usual, they wanted to correct their deficiency. But students in the fixed mindset chose to look at the tests of people who had done really poorly. That was their way of feeling better about themselves.”
• “John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren’t a failure until you start to blame. What he means is that you can still be in the process of learning from your mistakes until you deny them.”
• “French executive Pierre Chevalier says, ‘We are not a nation of effort. After all, if you have savoir-faire [a mixture of know-how and cool], you do things effortlessly.’”
• “People with the growth mindset, however, believe something very different. For them, even geniuses have to work hard for their achievements.”
• “They may appreciate endowment, but they admire effort, for no matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”
• “Those with the growth mindset found setbacks motivating. They’re informative. They’re a wake-up call.”
• “People with the growth mindset in sports (as in pre-med chemistry) took charge of the processes that bring success—and that maintain it.”

Recommended Reading

If you like Mindset, you may also enjoy the following books:

• Drive by Daniel Pink
• The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
• The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

Buy The Book: Mindset

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Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Paperback – Dec 26 2007

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• Print length 320 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Ballantine Books
• Publication date Dec 26 2007
• Dimensions 13.13 x 1.7 x 20.29 cm
• ISBN-10 0345472322
• ISBN-13 978-0345472328
• See all details

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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; Illustrated edition (Dec 26 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345472322
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345472328
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 kg
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.13 x 1.7 x 20.29 cm
• #18 in Job Hunting & Careers (Books)
• #19 in Social Psychology & Interactions (Books)
• #55 in Guides to Success

About the author

Carol s. dweck.

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is widely regarded as one of the world's leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology. She has been the William B. Ransford Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and is now the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her scholarly book Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development was named Book of the Year by the World Education Fellowship. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and she has appeared on Today and 20/20. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California.

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Mindset The New Psychology of Sucess Summary, Review, Notes

Dr. Carol S. Dweck, the Professor of Psychology at Stanford, demonstrates in her book “Mindset,” how a person’s perspective on their own abilities and the range of possible mindsets has a significant impact on their performance in school, work, sports, the arts, and pretty much any other area of human endeavor. Dweck explains the distinction between what she calls “fixed” and “growth” mindsets.

Dweck compares the growth mindset with the fixed mindset, and how each affects learning, relationships, and self-improvement. Additionally, she offers doable methods for developing a growth mindset and overcoming the constraints of a fixed mindset.

Book Title—   Mindset. The New Psychology of Success Author—  Carol Dweck Date of Reading—   March 2023 Rating—   9/10

Table of Contents

What is being said in detail, introduction.

In response to student requests, Dr. Carol S. Dweck, wrote Mindset to disseminate the findings she and her students had made together in class, primarily that a “mindset,” rather than natural talents or abilities, determines failure or success in a given situation. 

The purpose of Dweck’s book is to demonstrate how a shift in perspective can improve one’s outlook on one’s career, friendships, relationships, and pursuit of one’s goals. To achieve our goals, we need to stop thinking of ourselves as static individuals and instead adopt a growth-oriented, open-minded perspective.

CHAPTER 1. The Mindsets

Dr. Carol Dweck has spent the past thirty years studying people who have achieved great success , finding that some of them reach their full potential while others remain average. 

Dweck was surprised to see that some of the kids appeared to actively enjoy the harder puzzles when she observed children in a study where they were asked to solve progressively more challenging puzzles. 

The author argues that while some kids will take their setbacks as definitive evidence of their inability or incapacity, others will see them through a different lens. They view setbacks as opportunities for growth, knowing that with each setback, they will gain valuable experience and knowledge that will help them become better performers. 

The second group discovers that setbacks aren’t as terrible as they may have seemed at the time. She thinks the real question is whether you think talent is something you’re born with and just have to prove, or if you think it’s something you can hone and improve upon. A “growth mindset” describes the first mentality. A “fixed mindset”  describes the second way of thinking.

People with a fixed mindset believe that their level of intelligence is immutable. They are extremely preoccupied with their intelligence and the other areas in which they excel. 

On the other hand, they have a hard time taking on challenges because doing so could reveal their own shortcomings or insecurities. A person with a fixed mindset lacks the motivation to take on challenges and often has difficulty dealing with uncertainty as a result.

People who adopt a growth mindset view the world in a very different light from the get-go. They have a strong motivation to learn and grow as a result of their conviction that intelligence can be nurtured. 

They welcome challenges because they know they will make them stronger. They see failure as a learning experience rather than a reflection of who they are, so they consider themselves winners no matter what the outcome. 

Growth and skill acquisition are viewed as being dependent on putting forth an effort. Insightful data can be gleaned from criticism and negative comments.

How you feel about the unchangeability of intelligence and personality traits, or the possibility of making major changes in both, is an indicator of your own mindset. 

Dweck challenges the reader to put himself in the shoes of both mindsets, noting how those with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges and see them as opportunities for development.

CHAPTER 2. Inside The Mindsets

To succeed, you must cultivate an understanding of your own identity. That’s why it’s crucial that you know what goes into your decision-making process. When you know yourself inside and out, you have a better grasp of your abilities and limitations.

The journey to knowing oneself can take many forms. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Predictive Index, and the StrengthsFinder are just a few of the personality tests available. 

You can learn about your own decision-making processes by keeping a journal in which you record your predictions for the outcomes of various choices and then compare these predictions with the actual outcomes.

There is a distinction between these two perspectives on the importance of external validation and approval of our own success and excellence . People with fixed mindsets are constantly trying to win the approval of those around them. 

To put it another way, they are seeking external validation of their abilities. Those who have a growth mindset don’t do that, not because they don’t care what other people think of their achievements, but because they don’t need other people’s approval to achieve their goals.

It is crucial that we are able to tell the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, as this can have profound effects on our outlook on the world.

CHAPTER 3. The Truth About Ability And Accomplishment

People with a fixed mindset regard effort as a waste of time and energy, whereas those with a growth mindset recognize the importance of such efforts in expanding one’s intelligence and achieving one’s goals.

Carol Dweck’s Ph.D. dissertation focused on the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset. Her experiment investigated how a person’s attitude toward their own failures affected their performance. 

The theory was that when inability was perceived as the root cause of failures, people would become inhibited or lack confidence in situations where they had previously excelled. On the other hand, difficulties and challenges can motivate you to work even harder.

Dweck and her team conducted an experiment on “helpless” elementary school students to test this theory. In fact, they discovered that if the kids encountered a few math problems they couldn’t solve, they lost the ability to solve problems they had previously mastered, and for some, this loss of ability lasted for days. 

The group then worked with half of the students, teaching them to blame themselves for their failures while also encouraging them to try again. These young people learned to persevere in the face of adversity and achieve their goals. The non-treatment group made no progress and continued to deteriorate quickly, recovering only slowly.

Dweck’s research found that “their goals” distinguished students who persevered in the face of adversity from those who gave up. Progress toward “learning goals” or “performance goals” can be influenced in a variety of ways.

Dweck also addresses the issues that contribute to individual differences in how much emphasis is placed on various goals. She concludes that people with a growth mindset perceive ‘ability’ differently than people with a fixed mindset. 

If you have a fixed mindset, you expect a certain level of performance from yourself and believe that your natural talent is fixed. When you adopt a growth mindset, you believe that intelligence can be developed and that the challenges that come with learning are exciting.

There are things you can do to improve if you have a fixed mindset and realized it while reading this summary. Dweck advises us to think about our heroes and the qualities that make them so admirable. 

Do the people you admire appear to have risen to prominence with little effort on their part? If this is the case, inquire about the effort that led to their success. Make sure you’re pushing yourself by setting lofty goals. Then, make a promise to yourself that no failures or difficulties will deter you from your quest.

Failures and defeats can be highly instructive if we take the time to reflect on what went wrong and apply what we’ve learned to future attempts at the same challenge. Failure and defeat have the potential to motivate us, and they frequently do. When we’ve worked hard to get there because of that inspiration, success tastes much better and is more rewarding.

CHAPTER 4. Sports: The Mindset of a Champion                                  

Many people believe that natural talent alone is sufficient to reach the pinnacle of any field of endeavor, including sports. This false belief, however, is typical of people with fixed mindsets. 

The evidence for the success that can be achieved through effort and training is all around us, and this is consistent with the belief that a growth mentality can be developed.

A gifted athlete risks being stymied by his or her own abilities. The main reason for this is that gifted people tend to overvalue their natural abilities while undervaluing the value of consistent, hard work. 

The distinctions between fixed and development mindsets are most visible in how they interpret an individual’s behavior.

Athletes who are widely regarded as “naturals,” such as Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, required countless hours of hard work to achieve their peak levels of performance. 

In comparison, Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martínez succumbed to the fixed mindset. Because he was constantly praised, he began to believe that any shortcomings were the result of outside influences. When the Red Sox began losing to the New York Yankees in October 2001, Martínez went on a rant, attacking his own coach and threatening players. 

His inability to overcome adversity resulted in a disastrous outcome, and the Yankees went on to win the game.

The conceptual distinction between fixed and development mindsets is again at work here, and this is where a person’s personality really shines through. 

While those with a fixed mindset place undue emphasis on natural ability, those with a development mindset recognize that talent is only partially utilized before it reaches its full potential in the absence of practice.

When you have a champion’s mentality, you understand that everyone around you is important, regardless of the sport you play.

CHAPTER 5. Business: Mindset And Leadership

Carol Dweck’s research has expanded to include an examination of company-wide mindsets. Dweck and her new research team polled employees from seven large organizations to determine their level of agreement with phrases intended to indicate whether their workplace fostered a fixed or development mentality.

The authors of the study wanted to know if managers with a growth or fixed mindset had a more positive or negative impression of their employees, as well as if employees were more satisfied with their jobs, coworkers, and opportunities for innovation, ethics, and collaboration.

Employees of both growth-oriented and fixed-orientation businesses expressed a similar level of agreement when polled. Employees with a fixed attitude in a company were more likely to report that only a few “star” employees received preferential treatment. 

They had less faith in the company and were less committed to their jobs than those who worked for companies with a growth mindset. Because they were afraid of failing, they tried fewer new things and were more likely to lie, steal, and take shortcuts.

Employees who have a “growth mindset” are more likely to have the following favorable attitudes toward their employer:

• 47% believe their coworkers are trustworthy;
• 34% believe they are loyal and committed to the company;
• 5% believe they are encouraged to take risks; and
• 49% believe the company supports innovation.

Companies can foster a growth mindset by providing opportunities for professional development (such as paid training and educational grants), encouraging employees to look internally for new hires, and offering financial incentives for creative problem-solving.

CHAPTER 6. Relationships: Mindsets In Love (Or Not)

It’s no surprise that a fixed mindset can destroy even the strongest friendships and partnerships. A “stuck perspective assures relationship suffering, and even disaster,” says relationship expert Rinatta Paries. 

This is especially troubling because she believes that the majority of men and women have a fixed worldview when it comes to romantic relationships.

The majority of singles agree that finding the right partner is critical to having a successful romantic relationship. Many people believe that once they’ve found “the one,” their relationship will run smoothly and provide a solid foundation for the rest of their lives. 

Furthermore, they frequently believe that the “correct” partner will accept them exactly as they are, and that this is a necessary condition for happiness in a relationship. While it is natural and healthy to want to be liked and accepted, focusing solely on that goal can be detrimental to interpersonal relationships.

According to Paries, a relationship is doomed when one person remains static while the other strives for growth. Breakups happen when one partner in a relationship wants to change and the other partner is opposed. 

Another result of the fixed mindset is the belief that our partners should be telepathic. This leads to misunderstandings and unfair blame attributions to our partners’ personalities. Friendships are harmed when people with fixed ideas foster unhealthy rivalries.

If you have a growth mindset, choose a companion who thinks and acts similarly to you. If you don’t, you’ll be pleading with someone who doesn’t believe they can or will be able to make the necessary changes to your request.

If you’re stuck in your ways and need a gentle reminder that long-term relationships require give and take on both sides, consider this: if you want a long-term partner, you’ll need to learn to accept change.

CHAPTER 7. Parents, Teachers, and Coaches: Where Do Mindsets Come From?

While it’s natural for parents to want to lift their children’s spirits, it’s important to remember that praise can be used in both directions. 

Children should not be praised for their “innate talent,” as this promotes a preconceived worldview. High-achieving students are taught to avoid making mistakes in order to avoid being chastised for their efforts.

Instead of focusing on a child’s fixed abilities, it’s important to recognize and reward their efforts and outcomes in order to foster a growth mindset. Rather than praising a child for intangible characteristics, this reinforces the child’s efforts and provides specific feedback. 

When her children complete a task quickly and correctly, Dweck says, “I guess that was too simple… “Come on, let’s do something instructive!” By being exposed to adversity in this manner, children learn to see it as an opportunity.

Parents who put too much pressure on their children to succeed risk having their love interpreted as conditional.

Educators are no exception. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that teachers who label their students as achievers or non-achievers will see those labels reflected in their students’ performance throughout the year.

CHAPTER 8. Changing Mindsets: A Workshop

According to Dweck’s research, it is possible to shift from a limiting “fixed” mindset to a more adaptive “growth” mindset. The first step is to become acquainted with oneself. First and foremost, stop trying to avoid difficulty and start dealing with it.

To tune into the new perspective, start responding to your fixed mindset voice (FM) as if you already had a growth mindset (GM). Examples include:

FM: “You can’t do this, You’re just not talented enough.”

GM: “I believe I can master this with practice,”

Fm: “What if you fail? You will fail if you attempt to do so”

GM: “Most successful people fail along the way,”

FM: “If you had the talent, this would be easy.”

GM: “That is not correct, every day, elite athletes put in countless hours of practice to hone their skills.”

Whichever voice you give the most weight to, will shape your decisions and the way you think in the long run. It is critical to train yourself to recognize both perspectives while responding with a growth mindset.

Every day offers opportunities for growth and development. We must devise strategies for capitalizing on these opportunities, and if those strategies fail, we must devise new ones. If we are successful, we must consider how to continue expanding.

Most Important Keywords, Sentences, Quotes

“The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”

“Some outcomes are magnified, others are explained away, and before you know it you don’t know yourself at all.”

“The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving.”

“Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.”

“Smart people should always succeed. But for children with the growth mindset, success is about stretching themselves. It’s about becoming smarter.”

“Those who have a growth mindset agree that: “You can always substantially change how intelligent you are”.”

“There are many myths about ability and achievement, especially about the lone, brilliant person suddenly producing amazing things.”

“For students with the growth mindset, it doesn’t make sense to stop trying.”

“Because they think in terms of learning, people with the growth mindset are clued in to all the different ways to create learning.”

CHAPTER 4. Sports: The Mindset of a Champion 

“The naturals, carried away with their superiority, don’t learn how to work hard or how to cope with setbacks.”

“Character is what allows you to reach the top and stay there.”

“Character, heart, the mind of a champion. It’s what makes great athletes and it’s what comes from the growth mindset with its focus on self-development, self-motivation, and responsibility.”

CHAPTER 5: Business: Mindset And Leadership

“Obviously, a company that cannot self-correct cannot thrive.”

“Fixed-mindset leaders, like fixed-mindset people in general, live in a world where some people are superior and some are inferior.”

“When you enter the world of the growth-mindset leaders, everything changes. It brightens, it expands, it fills with energy, with possibility.”

“It had to be a person with the fixed mindset who coined the phrase “Revenge is sweet”—the idea that with revenge comes your redemption— because people with the growth mindset have little taste for it.”

“The growth mindset says all of these things can be developed. All—you, your partner, and the relationship—are capable of growth and change.”

“In fact, every word and action sends a message. It tells children—or students, or athletes—how to think about themselves.”

“Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance.”

“When parents help their children construct growth-minded ideals, they are giving them something they can strive for.”

“Nothing is better than seeing people find their way to things they value.”

“Even when you change, the old beliefs aren’t just removed like a worn-out hip or knee and replaced with better ones. Instead, the new beliefs take their place alongside the old ones, and as they become stronger, they give you a different way to think, feel, and act.”

Book Review (Personal Opinion):

Carol S. Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is about human thoughts and how they can influence how we live our daily lives. Written in the style of a self-help guide, this book is packed with useful tips and insights for improving your life.

Dweck did a ton of research and preparation for this book, which is fascinating and admirable in and of itself. The author’s “mindset” of how people’s unique perspectives and experiences lead them to live their lives in such different ways is based on extensive research spanning many years. 

According to the author’s observations, there are two completely different ways of thinking; however, she found that there is a way for people with these two perspectives to communicate with one another.

Dweck provides concrete examples of how our choice of mindset determines our trajectories in life by combining her own research with that of prominent psychologists, educators, and researchers. 

Although she concedes that many factors, such as gender, race, and socioeconomic background, are beyond our control, she maintains that these do not have to determine our destinies.

At the end of each chapter, the author includes a “Grow Your Mindset” section titled “Examine Your Beliefs and Actions in This Area” in which the reader is prompted to do some mental exercises to adopt a growth mindset and evaluate their own beliefs and actions .

Mindset: The New Psychology Today is a book that will expand your horizons with its insightful and thought-provoking content. There is never a dull moment in the book itself. Instead, it will take the reader on a journey that will provide him with new and valuable information that will help him live a better life.

Rating : 9/10

This Book Is For:

• People who are seeking personal growth and development
• People who want to improve their mindset and achieve greater success in life.
• People who want to cultivate a growth mindset to achieve your full potential

If You Want to Learn More

Here is an interview with author Carol Dweck about her research into “self-conceptions (or mindsets) people use to structure the self and guide their behavior”, and how you can apply a Growth Mindset at home, at school, and in your career. The Growth Mindset | Carol Dweck | Talks at Google.

How I’ve Implemented The Ideas From The Book

I procrastinated and felt burdened by deadlines. After reading Carol Dweck’s “Mindset,” my perspective shifted.

I realized I needed to adopt a growth mindset and believe that hard work and practice would improve my productivity and time management. I defined job objectives and broke them down into smaller, more manageable chunks. I also set aside daily time for these chores and held myself accountable.

Failures provided me with valuable learning opportunities. I used missed deadlines and low productivity as feedback to improve my time management and productivity. I assessed my strengths and weaknesses and sought resources and assistance to help me improve.

I overcame procrastination and became more productive and efficient by adopting a growth mindset, setting goals, and viewing failures as learning opportunities. I was able to achieve my objectives through concentration and determination.

One Small Actionable Step You Can Do

Start paying attention to your self-talk as a first step toward developing a growth mindset. Take note of how you speak to yourself when faced with difficulties or setbacks.

If you notice you have a fixed mindset, try rephrasing your self-talk to be more positive and growth-oriented. Instead of telling yourself, “I’m just not good at this,” you could say, “I may not be good at this yet, but I can improve with practice and hard work.”

You can begin to shift your mindset toward growth by changing the way you talk to yourself. This can lead to increased confidence, resilience, and willingness to take on new challenges over time. 

Remember that adopting a growth mindset is a process, and changing old habits and beliefs takes time and effort. However, by taking small steps, such as paying attention to your self-talk, you can begin to move toward a more positive and growth-oriented mindset.

Bruno Boksic

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Mindset Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:  Mindset explains the difference between having a fixed and a growth mindset, why one trumps the other, and what you can do to adopt the right one.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

Video Summary

Mindset review, audio summary, who would i recommend the mindset summary to.

Look at your hands. How long have they been this way? As long as you can remember, right? That’s because we have almost no control over our appearance and features, such as height, the shape of our nose, or the color of our eyes.

What we do control, however, are our skills and abilities, at least according to the latest research. Carol Dweck is one of those researchers. In her book Mindset , she discerns between two attitudes: the fixed mindset and the  growth mindset .

People with a fixed mindset believe talent is everything. If they’re not gifted with the ability to do something, they think they’re doomed to be a failure. Their skills seem to be written down in their genes, just like their looks, which is why they never try to improve in something they suck at.

To contrast that, people with a growth mindset believe that whatever they want to achieve is theirs for the taking, as long as they work hard for it, dedicate themselves to their goal and practice as much as they can.

Here are my three favorite lessons from the book:

• The corporate world turns most of us into fixed-mindset drones.
• The growth mindset mostly stems from a strong, genuine desire to learn.
• We are all born with a growth mindset, and we can relearn it anytime.

Let’s take a look at these two mindsets and see how you can go from one to the other!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: The corporate world turns most of us into fixed-mindset drones.

Big corporations like McKinsey or Goldman Sachs hire the best graduates and then expect them to perform perfectly and instantly. Instead of being trained on the job, employees are thrown into cold water and monitored closely for errors. Whoever doesn’t do a great job right away gets fired. This breeds a fixed mindset.

In a fixed mindset world, talent is king. Naturally, people want to look talented all the time.

By pushing people into mainly window-dressing their performance instead of actually performing, not only do the employers rob themselves of great people , their black-and-white thinking also cultivates a fixed mindset in others. Since the applicants already assume they’re always being judged as good or bad , the employers behavior turns it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As a result, most employees spend their time trying not to look stupid instead of working productively so their leaders won’t brand them as a failure.

Lesson 2: The growth mindset mostly stems from a strong, genuine desire to learn.

If you give kids hard math problems, they love working on them and want more of the same kind . This is the growth mindset in a nutshell. The kids’ desire to face more and tougher challenges doesn’t necessarily come from wanting better grades. Instead, it comes from the satisfaction they get from pushing themselves as much as they can. They adopt the mantra “ Practice makes perfect .”

Two famous examples of a fixed and growth mindset are Lee Iacocca , who ran Chrysler, and Lou Gerstner , former CEO of IBM. Both came in when the companies were down in the dumps, and both successfully turned them around. The difference lies in what happened afterwards.

Iacocca became complacent. He took all the credit, surrounded himself with worshippers and worried more about his own image than about the company. Seeking approval  from others to compensate for his low self-esteem led him to make bad decisions. He ignored dwindling sales and even fired innovative designers, which brought the company right down again.

Gerstner, on the other hand, recognized the internal battles at IBM didn’t help teamwork and customer service. So he broke up old hierarchies and even put himself on an employee level to communicate well. By focusing on teamwork and learning from past failures he showed a true growth mindset and brought sustainable success to IBM.

In a similar manner, a furious, fixed mindset golfer might fire his caddy or throw his shoes into the crowd . Michael Jordan , on the other hand, never let a mistake stop him.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

His Airness has spoken – and he’s become the first billionaire basketball player in history.

Trying to avoid difficult situations is characteristic of a fixed mindset. Had Christopher Reeve , actor of the original Superman movies, adopted this kind of mindset, he probably would have died soon after his riding accident , which paralyzed him from the neck down. Instead, he put up a tremendous fight and became an activist for spinal cord research. Eventually, he could move his arms, legs, and upper body again. He even walked across the bottom of a swimming pool .

Lesson 3: We are all born with a growth mindset – and we can relearn it anytime.

Surprisingly, we are all born with a growth mindset . Babies know no limits, they want to learn anything and everything. However, between the ages of 1 to 3 a mindset can already be determined. Babies with a growth mindset tend to try and help other crying babies, while it disturbs and annoys fixed mindset babies.

Apart from our parents, our teachers also play a major role in how our mindset turns out. A bad teacher might tell a D student that she’ll never amount to anything. But a good teacher would encourage her to study more and do better on the next test.

Lastly, anyone can develop a growth mindset . For starters, try this: The next time you spill your coffee, don’t say: “I’m clumsy!” and associate the failure with your identity. Instead, see it as an external, one-time event and resolve to do better the next time. For example, try saying: “I can’t change what’s done. I’ll just mop it up and pay more attention the next time.”

This way, you’ll spend more time working towards your goals and dreams – and less time worrying about what’s wrong with you.

Mindset reminded me a lot of the book Learned Optimism , where the difference between success and failure lies in the perspective you choose to take. This book does a great job at explaining where the two mindsets come from, what consequences they have, and how to adopt a growth mindset yourself.

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account:

The 37-year-old actor, who thinks it’s too late to change careers, the 16-year-old, cocky high school student, who never studies because good grades fall into his lap, and anyone who believes talent is all you need and if you don’t have it, you’re screwed.

Last Updated on July 25, 2022

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

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Book Summary Mindset , by Carol S. Dweck

You have powerful beliefs that affect what you want in life and whether you get it. In Mindset , psychologist and researcher Carol S. Dweck argues that the way you think determines the course of your life, starting as early as your preschool years.

You learn one of two mindsets from your parents, teachers, and coaches: that personal qualities such as intelligence and ability are innate and unchangeable (the fixed mindset) or that you and others can change and grow (the growth mindset). Understanding and adjusting your mindset can change your career, relationships, the way you raise your children, and your overall life satisfaction.

In this guide, we explore Dweck’s mindset theory, most notably the nature vs. nurture debate. We connect her ideas with other self-help books to further explore the damage a fixed mindset causes and the benefits of a growth mindset. Finally, we link to practical tools and techniques to help you learn how to overcome a fixed mindset and embrace taking chances and making mistakes.

1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of Mindset

Although you may not be conscious of them, you have powerful beliefs that affect what you want and whether you get it. In Mindset , Carol S. Dweck argues that your attitudes about your abilities and intelligence determine the course of your life, starting as early as your preschool years.

Dweck is a psychology professor at Stanford University and has received numerous awards for her work in social and developmental psychology. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University.

(Shortform note: Mindset is an outgrowth of the age-old nature vs. nurture debate (that is, how much of our ability and personality are hardwired into us, and how much is the result of how we’re raised?). Recent studies suggest nurture is more important than nature —that growing up in a safe, secure, and inspirational environment outweighs innate abilities and behaviors. Dweck agrees with this assessment: The crux of her argument in Mindset is that we can continue to improve throughout our lives by nurturing our growth, and that doing so far outweighs whatever natural talents we do or don’t possess.)

The Two Mindsets

Dweck begins by saying that your mindset shapes your entire personality, and it helps or hinders you from reaching your potential. It dictates how you interpret success, failure, and effort, as well as how you approach school, sports, work, and relationships.

Dweck says that you learn one of two mindsets from your parents, teachers, and the media you consume: a fixed mindset, or a growth mindset.

1. Fixed mindset: Personal qualities such as intelligence and personality are innate and unchangeable. Many of us are trained in this mindset from an early age and have heard some version of the following during our childhoods:

• It’s okay kid, I was never good at math either.
• Some people are just naturally athletic, and you can’t compete with them.
• She’s really smart, and that’s why she gets As.

If you have a fixed mindset, you feel you must constantly prove yourself: If people are born with a set amount of intelligence or ability, then you want to prove that you have a lot, even though you secretly worry you were shortchanged.

Superhero Stories Reinforce a Fixed Mindset Mentality Popular superheroes often perpetuate the notion that you must be gifted to do great things. For example, most Marvel superheroes can only fight against evil because they have innate abilities far beyond what any ordinary person is capable of. For example: Thor is an alien warrior prince with godlike powers. Hulk has incredible (no pun intended) strength and durability. Captain Marvel can fly and shoot energy blasts from her hands. Iron Man is a super-genius; entire teams of scientists and engineers can’t replicate his inventions.

2. Growth mindset: People can change and improve. When you have a growth mindset, you believe the abilities you’re born with are only a starting point—you can get smarter and improve yourself with hard work, persistence, and the right learning strategies. You have a passion for learning and welcome mistakes as opportunities to learn, and you seek challenges to push yourself.

Learn How to Learn Brain and memory coach Jim Kwik's career is based on the growth-oriented premise that you can learn anything and improve your skills in any area. In his self-help book Limitless , he describes three aspects of learning: Mindframe: Before you can learn, you must believe that it’s possible to do so (a growth mindset ). Drive: Once you know that you can learn something, you have to want to learn it. Your drive for learning could either come from a natural interest in the subject or an outside motivation, such as career aspirations or personal goals. Techniques: Once you’re ready to learn, you’ll need effective methods of absorbing information quickly and retaining it permanently. Kwik believes that mastering these three things allows you to learn about any topic more quickly and easily than you thought possible. In fact, he credits his own success to this system of learning.

Success and Failure

Dweck says that in the fixed-mindset world, success is about proving to yourself and others that you’re smart and talented. Any type of setback is a failure: a bad grade, losing a competition, or not getting the job or promotion you wanted. Furthermore, if you have a fixed mindset, you take this type of failure to mean you’re not smart or talented enough; therefore, setbacks are intolerable and you’re likely to quit trying.

Conversely, success in the growth mindset world is about pushing yourself, learning, and improving. Failure means not seizing an opportunity to learn, not striving for what’s important to you, or not reaching for your potential.

Review Your Definition of Success The definition of success varies from person to person, and how you define it is ultimately rooted in your ideology . Many people (not to mention the Merriam-Webster Dictionary ) have rigid definitions of success: A person is successful if he achieves wealth, fame, or respect (all of which come from others), or if he accomplishes a predetermined desired outcome. According to Dweck, these common definitions come from fixed mindsets: Success means a good result, and the amount of effort that went into that result is irrelevant. By this measure,...

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Mindset Summary Chapter 1: Two Mindsets

Although you may not be conscious of them, you have powerful beliefs that affect what you want and whether you get it. In Mindset , psychologist and researcher Carol S. Dweck argues that one belief in particular can determine the course of much of your life , starting as early as your preschool years.

You learn one of two mindsets from your parents, teachers, and coaches — that personal qualities such as intelligence and ability are innate and unchangeable (a “fixed” mindset) or that you and others can change and grow (a “growth” mindset) . Regardless of which view dominates your thinking, it shapes your personality and helps or hinders you from reaching your potential.

Understanding how your mindset plays out can change your career, relationships, the way you raise your children, and your overall satisfaction in life.

Nature vs. Nurture

Throughout much of history, experts have debated the roles of nature and nurture in determining people’s personal characteristics, asking which has the bigger impact — genetics or environmental factors including background, experience, and education.

Today, most researchers agree that nature and nurture work together. People...

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Shortform Exercise: What’s Your Mindset?

You have a fixed mindset if you believe your intelligence is innate and can’t be changed (I’m just not good at math); that you’re a certain kind of person. You have a growth mindset if you believe you can learn and change basic things about yourself.

Think of a situation that challenged your abilities — for instance, being asked to give a speech or having to take a test. With which mindset did you approach it? Which was your first inclination: worry about being judged or anticipation for what you could learn?

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Mindset Summary Chapter 2: Two Different Worlds

The two mindsets are different worlds where the same things have different meanings for the inhabitants of each world. Most important is how people with each mindset — fixed or growth — define and interpret success and failure.

In general, in the fixed mindset world, success is about proving to yourself and others that you’re smart and talented . It’s about validation. If you fail, it means you’re not smart or talented, therefore failure is intolerable. Failure is any type of setback: a bad grade, losing a competition, not getting the job or promotion you want, being rejected. Effort is a negative — if you need it, that means you’re not smart.

In the growth mindset world where you can change, success is about stretching yourself, learning, and improving. Failure is not seizing an opportunity to learn, not striving for what’s important to you, not reaching for your potential. Effort is a positive — it helps you get smarter and increase your abilities.

Remember, mindsets are beliefs — although they’re powerful, you can change them.

Defining Success

When you start out in life, success is about learning. You’re born with a drive to learn . Babies learn...

Shortform Exercise: Risking Failure

People with fixed mindsets (the belief that abilities are unchangeable) may be reluctant to take on challenges for fear of failing. In contrast, those with a growth mindset see failures as opportunities to learn.

Think of a time when you failed at something. How did you feel? How did you interpret the failure?

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Mindset Summary Chapter 3: Ability and Achievement

Many people have wrong ideas about ability and achievement . For instance, they picture Thomas Edison working long hours alone in a small lab, when he suddenly invents the lightbulb in a “Eureka!” moment..

But that’s not how it happened. He had dozens of assistants working for him in a large corporate-funded lab. The successful lightbulb was the end result of a string of inventions, to which chemists, physicists, engineers, and many others contributed. Edison had a true growth mindset and drive to learn and tackle new challenges.

While ability helps, achievement comes through learning and effort. Likewise, Darwin’s book, The Origin of Species , was the product of numerous drafts and conversations with countless colleagues over many years. Mozart worked more than ten years before producing notable work.

This chapter explains what achievement really takes and why some people achieve more and others less.

Achievement in School

Achievement in school starts with mindset. Researchers measured students’ mindsets as they transitioned to junior high school, which is a particularly challenging time for adolescents, then followed them for two years.

The students...

Shortform Exercise: Rethinking Praise

When kids accomplish something, adults often praise them for their abilities in an effort to boost their confidence. However, research shows this kind of praise makes children reluctant to take on challenges because it reinforces the notion that abilities are fixed. Children are afraid that trying something and failing will call their abilities into question.

What were you praised for as a child? What were you criticized for?

Mindset Summary Chapter 4: Talent and Mindset in Sports

The concept of being “a natural” comes from sports. It’s the belief that someone who’s effortlessly athletic — who displays talent — has all it takes to succeed. When looking for recruits, many scouts and coaches focus on talent alone: they look for naturals.

Golfers used to believe they shouldn’t train — physical training could hurt your natural swing — until Tiger Woods started winning with stringent workouts and practice routines. In some cultures, athletes who trained were derided — you were supposed to accept what nature had given you. But in sports, like academics and business, you can’t succeed indefinitely on talent alone. You need the right mindset: a growth mindset.

In the book Moneyball , author Michael Lewis tells the story of baseball player Billy Beane, who had great natural talent but lacked the mindset necessary to become a champion. His fixed mindset, with its belief in natural talent, held him back. When things went wrong, he fell apart because he couldn’t tolerate failure. He couldn’t address his problems because he felt that expending effort shouldn’t be necessary and, in fact, would be an admission of weakness.

While watching a less talented player, Lenny...

Mindset Summary Chapter 5: Leadership and Mindset in Business

The mindset of a company’s leader is a key determinant of whether a company fails or succeeds .

One of the most spectacular business failures in recent years was the collapse of the energy giant Enron in 2006. At the heart of Enron’s failure was a fixed mindset, an obsession with talent that blinded the company’s leadership to serious problems, and blinded investors and outsiders to the fact that the business was a house of cards destined to fall.

Business gurus of the time were insisting that corporate success required hiring with a “talent mindset.” It was touted as the key to beating the competition. Enron’s culture was built on this thinking. The company recruited big talent and paid handsomely for it. But because the company celebrated talent, employees felt they had to always appear highly talented in order to survive. Basically, everyone was forced into a fixed mindset, intent on proving their superiority.

Since people with fixed mindsets can’t admit flaws, the company couldn’t acknowledge and correct its mistakes, which spelled its doom. Even after its failure, CEO Jeff Skilling never admitted there was anything wrong, instead blaming others for not getting...

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Shortform Exercise: Groupthink

Fixed-mindset CEOs and organizations are prone to groupthink, in which everyone thinks alike — no one disagrees, raises issues, or criticizes. It can lead to disastrous decisions.

Can you recall an instance of groupthink in your company or organization? What was the result?

Mindset Summary Chapter 6: Mindset in Relationships

Whether you have a fixed or growth mindset affects the course of your personal relationships . Mindset helps explain:

• Why people work against their own interests in relationships
• Why relationships devolve into warfare
• Why some relationships succeed and others don’t

Coping with Rejection

The road to satisfying relationships is marked with disappointments, mistakes, and most devastating of all, rejection. When they experience setbacks, some people are able to heal and move on to better relationships, while others remain stuck or scarred. The difference is mindset.

Researchers recruited 100 people to describe their experience of rejection. The study compared how those with fixed mindsets handled it versus those with growth mindsets:

• People with fixed mindsets felt judged and labeled as a failure or unlovable. They reacted angrily to the person who rejected them and were obsessed with getting revenge or making that person suffer.
• People with growth mindsets wanted to understand, learn, and move on to more successful relationships. They didn’t feel labeled but instead looked for insights about themselves and lessons such as the importance of...

Shortform Exercise: Magical Thinking

People with fixed mindsets believe that if two people are right for each other, their relationship should always be smooth sailing. The growth-minded view is that it’s not magic — they’ll work together to learn relationship and problem-solving skills.

When you first started thinking about relationships, what was your view of how they should be? How did your view change as you got older?

Mindset Summary Chapter 7 Part 1: Bullying

Experiencing rejection is painful for an adult, but imagine how it feels to a child. Children experience rejection daily in schools. Starting in grade school, some kids are victimized, attacked, or ridiculed. Ongoing bullying makes some children’s lives a nightmare and can evolve into years of depression and anger.

Schools may be reluctant to act because they don’t see the bullying or it’s done by favorite students. Sometimes the authorities decide that the victims rather than the bullies are the problem. Nonetheless, as a society, we’re paying more attention to bullying today because of school shootings. The boys who shot classmates at Columbine High School in 1999 had been bullied for years. Bullying is suspected to have played a role in other mass shootings as well.

Bullies Prove Superiority

Bullying in school is about powerful kids judging vulnerable kids as less worthy or less valuable human beings . Once they identify victims, bullies torment them constantly. Judging and humiliating others gives bullies a rush, as well as social status and power: others may look up to them or at least fear them.

**Bullies apply fixed-mindset thinking. They prove their...

Mindset Summary Chapter 7 Part 2: Mindset for Parents, Teachers, and Coaches

Parents want to help their kids to succeed in school and life, yet their comments, actions and attempts to be helpful often send the wrong message .

Words and actions from adults tell young children, students, and athletes what to think about themselves. They can convey a fixed-mindset message that children’s traits are permanent and they’ll be judged for them. Or they can convey a growth-oriented message that children (and all people) are continually developing and adults are committed to helping them in this process.

Children are extremely sensitive to these messages. They’re concerned about how they’re being tested/judged and what will happen if they fall short.

Kids Hear Messages Constantly

Children with fixed mindsets hear judgment from their parents — it feels as though their abilities are always being measured.

To understand children’s thinking, researchers asked them several questions. Here are the responses from both the fixed-minded and growth-oriented kids.

Question #1 : Imagine that your parents are happy when you get a good grade. Why would they be happy?

• Fixed-minded children responded along the lines of: “They were happy to...

Shortform Exercise: Constructive Criticism

When parents or teachers criticize children, they intend it to be helpful, but often it isn’t because they’re being judgmental, not constructive. To be constructive, criticism must help a child fix something or do something better.

Think of a time recently when your child made a mistake. How did you react? What did you say? (If you don’t have a child, think of someone you give feedback to, like a team member or a friend.)

Mindset Summary Chapter 8: A New Mindset

How your mind works.

Your mind is constantly monitoring and interpreting what’s happening around you. Your mindset guides how you interpret things.

A fixed mindset sets up a mental monologue focused on judging — you feel judged and you judge others. For instance, you might think, “This means I’m a failure,” “What a bunch of losers,” “I’ll never be good at handling money.”

Growth-oriented people don’t constantly judge themselves and others this way. Like people with fixed mindsets, they keep a running mental account of events and feelings, but their interpretations of what’s going on focus on learning and action. They think, “This situation is painful, but what can I learn to avoid repeating it?” and “How can I improve?”

This chapter is about changing from a judging monologue to a growth-oriented one — a mindset based on a belief in change and development. Often, just learning about the two mindsets and how they affect you can prompt change. However, completely changing is hard. The fixed mindset hangs around, competing with the growth-oriented ways of thinking that you’re trying to adopt.

Your fixed mindset beliefs about being smart, ambitious, superior, and...

Table of Contents

‘Mindset’ Review: The next book you should read

by Chris Bailey | Jun 20, 2013 | Book Reviews

Brief Synopsis / Review

Mindset is a damn good book, and you should read it.

The major crux of the book is that there are two kind of people in this world: those that have a ‘fixed’ mindset, and those that have a ‘growth’ mindset.

People who have a fixed mindset think their intelligence is, well, fixed , and they care the most about looking smart. They avoid challenges (because they might lead to failure), give up easily (because setbacks might hurt their self-image), and see hard work and effort as a waste, because they think they’re either talented enough to do something or they’re not.

Folks that have a growth mindset see their intelligence as malleable – they see their mind as something that can be developed, and they have an intense desire to learn. They embrace challenges, persist against setbacks, and see hard work as a chance to get better at something.

In her research, Carol Dweck found that the only thing that separates people who succeed from those who don’t is whether or not they have a growth mindset. This book is about that mindset, and how you can learn it and use it. The book sounds a bit corny on the surface, but when you dive in, it’s entertaining, fun, practical, and definitely worth your time. You should read this book.

What you’ll get out of it

• An understanding of the impact growth and fixed mindsets have on your performance, as well as how they impact athletes, businesses, relationships, and kids. This book isn’t hippy-dippy; it references science all the way through, and is the result of over 30 years of research by the author.
• The ability to recognize a growth in yourself and the people around you (including your kids and employees).
• Ideas on how to transform your fixed mindset into a growth mindset. (Most people are a combination of both – ‘fixed’ in some areas, and ‘growth’ in others.)

Will it make you more productive?

• Yes. The book is both practical and tactical, and it will give you a deep understanding of how your mindset effects your success and productivity.
• After giving an overview of both mindsets, Dweck dives into how mindset works into the worlds of sport, business, relationships, and parenting. All of these chapters are entertaining, but if you’re in a time crunch, you won’t miss anything huge if you skip the sections that don’t apply to you.

Written by Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey has written hundreds of articles on the subject of productivity and is the author of three books:  How to Calm Your Mind , Hyperfocus , and  The Productivity Project . His books have been published in more than 40 languages. Chris writes about productivity on this site and  speaks to organizations  around the globe on how they can become more productive without hating the process.

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Book Box: Mind matters

SINGAPORE – In this week’s Book Box, The Straits Times looks at fiction and non-fiction books on the theme of mental health. Buy the books at Amazon . These articles include affiliate links. When you buy through them, we may earn a small commission.

In Trump’s racist America, The Joy Luck Club’s Amy Tan turns to backyard birding for peace

Chinese-American novelist Amy Tan used to be terrified of birds because of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. The Birds (1963), with its menacing swarm of murderous black avians, was filmed only about 30km from the author’s California home.

But The Joy Luck Club (1989) author began to sing a different tune when politics went awry in the United States. With the election of far-right populist Donald Trump as president, anti-Asian racism reached a fever pitch.

Tan, like many Americans, felt helpless and wanted to retreat. She turned to birding in her backyard and started nature journal classes.

“I was thinking: Don’t fall into depression. Depression is being helpless, you need to find some place where you can recover. I decided to go into nature and do something that was about beauty, not something ugly like hatred or racism.”

READ MORE HERE

‘A lot of nonsense being spouted’: Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan on the anti-ageing industry 

Midway through the interview with 2009 Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan, the structural biologist unexpectedly initiates a reference to Singapore.

“It strikes me as a slightly impatient country,” he says. “It wants to invest in research and then it wants returns right away. Science doesn’t always work that way. You need patience and a long-term view.”

This exhortation for time for the scientific community to do its best work has led the 72-year-old British-American scientist to write his new book, Why We Die: The New Science Of Ageing And The Quest For Immortality.

The former president of the Royal Society’s expert voice is an “objective look” at the hype surrounding newfangled attempts to stave off death.

Irish author Marian Keyes explores a multitude of women’s issues through writing

It was through writing that Irish author Marian Keyes, 60, was finally able to express her own tumultuous battle with mental health.

During an intense four-year depressive episode from 2008 to 2012, Keyes’ biggest struggle was with suicidal thoughts. In the same period, she wrote her 13th novel The Mystery Of Mercy Close (2012), featuring Helen Walsh, a female private investigator who also struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts.

Over a Zoom call from her home in Dublin, Ireland, Keyes says: “I did find it therapeutic-ish. I was tired of trying to explain the weirdness of how I felt, and I couldn’t find any other people who felt like I did, though subsequently I have.

“I’ve spent time in a psychiatric hospital and even then, it wasn’t so much the depression that people didn’t get as it was the fear.”

Book review: Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is an energetic, maximalist triumph

At 28, former alcoholic Cyrus Shams’ new life of sobriety is still a cocktail of insomnia and suicidal thoughts. The orphaned Iranian-American poet stares into the abyss, but he does not want to “waste his one good death”.

He is a wannabe martyr – if that word is not too cliched for an Iranian and too incendiary in an Islamophobic world. He wrestles with his fixation on martyrdom by starting to write a book on historical martyrs such as the Indian anti-colonial revolutionary Bhagat Singh and Chinese poet-aristocrat Qu Yuan.

Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar, who has written openly about his old alcohol addiction and depression, might have written a protagonist that hews close to his biography. But this brilliant debut novel is not a memoir disguised as fiction – it is a resoundingly contemporary novel of great invention and ideas.

The Straits Times’ Weekly Bestsellers May 25

Enigmas by former NMP Simon Tay hits the No. 1 spot on the non-fiction bestsellers list.

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Home / Reviews / Tablets & computers / Apple MacBook Air M3 (2024) review: the best ultraportable laptop out there

Apple MacBook Air M3 (2024) review: the best ultraportable laptop out there

The MacBook Air gets a bump to intergalactic processing speeds with Apple’s newest M3 chip. Is that enough to hold the interest?

Stuff Verdict

Yes, the best everyday ultraportable is now even better – the gauntlet has been laid down for Intel laptops again.

Beautifully designed

Super light

Superb keyboard

Upgrades can be very expensive

Very similar to the M2 Air

Jury’s still out on the screen notch

Introduction

Looking for a MacBook Air M3 review? You’re in the right place. Apple has been blurring the lines between MacBook Air and Pro premium laptops since the former cast off its old wedge shape in 2022. Then last year the 13in Air was joined by a 15in version… and now Apple has upgraded both to the newer M3 chip, along with a sprinkling of other changes.

It’s still way cheaper than the MacBook Pro … but with the M2 Air now available for under a grand, does it make sense to go with the MacBook Air M3?

One thing to bear in mind while you’re totting up your options is memory: 8GB of RAM is specified on all base-spec Airs. That’s fine for everyday purposes, but if you’re going to be using any kind of pro-level software for photo or video work then I think you need 16GB (I’m using nearly 14GB as I write this review).

• Apple MacBook Air M3 vs MacBook Air M2: what’s the difference?

On test here is the 16GB+512GB model, which is a big slice more than standard at $1499/£1499. If you’re thinking about a 15-incher, that brings a $200/£200 premium over the 13in equivalents. Here’s how I got on with the MacBook Air M3…

How we test laptops

Every laptop reviewed on Stuff is used as our main device throughout the testing process. We use industry standard benchmarks and tests, as well as our own years of experience, to judge general performance, battery life, display and sound quality. Manufacturers have no visibility on reviews before they appear online, and we never accept payment to feature products.

Find out more about how we test and rate products .

Design, build, and screen

The design of the Macbook Air M3 hasn’t changed from the M2 version, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s one of the thinnest laptops you can get. It’s sleek, but not showy. At 1.24kg it’s around 400g lighter than my MacBook Pro, which is very noticeable indeed. As for the almost-black Midnight finish: I’m a fan. I’ve also been playing with the Starlight 15in version, which is a great second choice. The other options are classic Silver and the less compelling Space Grey.

On the connectivity front, the Air once again has two Thunderbolt USB-C ports… and once again they’re both on the left. I’d really like it if Apple would provide an option on the right, but I guess the answer there is to go Pro if you really need it. Thankfully, the keyboard is as great to type on as ever.

As for the 13.6in LED display, it’s one of the best around, with 224ppi and 500 nits of brightness, though it lags behind the superior mini-LED displays on the MacBook Pro lineup. The bezels are noticeably thicker as well, and the jury’s still out on the screen notch. If you struggle with screen space on an ultraportable, the 15in version is superb – but you’ll need to make sure your backpack has room.

Power, performance, and battery life

At surface level, there isn’t a massive amount changed about the M3 Air. That chip is clearly a key difference, but performance isn’t improved a massive amount: benchmarks indicate around a 15-20% uplift in multi-core oomph, which is nice to have rather than being a must-have. The inclusion of slightly faster Wi-Fi 6E is also welcome.

The M3’s graphics, however, are greatly improved over the M2: by around 40%, with framerates in some games up by more. Apple likes to talk about gaming with things like this, but the real boon for many Mac users will be the boost to performance in premium video and photo editing apps. Another big headline around this model has been the ability to support two displays, something the Air M1 and M2 couldn’t do. The only snag is that, if you connect two external screens, you need to close the lid to make both work.

One other thing that has sped up is the storage. With the M1 and M2 Airs the SSD was a little slow – seems like a small thing, but it did dent performance, and Apple has fixed that with the M3. Put simply, instead of being one block of storage it’s now two working in tandem.

If you’ve been following the Mac market since the switch from Intel, you’ll also know that Apple’s own chips are super-efficient. You’re talking 14-15hrs for intensive use, and looping a video shows an overall life of around 20hrs. That’s pretty amazing for such a small but capable device.

MacBook Air M3: verdict

The M3-powered MacBook Air takes things on a step again. And while Intel-based Windows ultraportables are improving all the time, they can’t match the performance and battery life on show here. Still, the M2 Air remains the elephant in the room. As it’s now available from £999, it’s a stunning option for the price – is it enough for you?

Stuff Says…

Score: 5 /5

Apple MacBook Air 13in M3 tech specs

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home

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