I blame it on your praise.

I don’t read articles very often, but maybe hanging out with Anthony is enough peer pressure to get me going on that a bit.  In “Why Do Some People Learn Faster?” (Jonah Lehrer; wired.com) I was told why I’m such a loser now and give up so easily when presented with difficulties. 

Here’s my summary of the situation presented in the article: 

We all have mostly inevitable negative and almost immediate responses to our mistakes.  Then immediately afterward we show differing amounts of awareness of the mistake, i.e., whether we are paying attention to it, and thus, learning from it, or not so much.  And basically, science people found that we tend to fall into two categories:  those who have a “fixed” mindset (I’m this inherently smart and that’s it) and those who have a “growth” mindset (dang it I messed up, but now I’ll do better).

Experiment, part 1:

400 kids given tests.  Afterward, each received one of two praises:  Good effort or You’re smart.

“When kids were praised for their effort, nearly 90 percent chose the harder set of puzzles. However, when kids were praised for their intelligence, most of them went for the easier test. What explains this difference? According to Dweck, praising kids for intelligence encourages them to “look” smart, which means that they shouldn’t risk making a mistake.”

Experiment, part 2:

Same kids.  Much harder puzzles.

“The students who were initially praised for their effort worked hard at figuring out the puzzles. Kids praised for their smarts, on the other hand, were easily discouraged. Their inevitable mistakes were seen as a sign of failure: Perhaps they really weren’t so smart.”

Experiment, part 3:

Same kids.  Same tests as part 1.

“Good Effort” kids improved scores by 30 percent.  “You’re Smart” kids dropped scores by nearly 20 percent.

The author’s conclusion: 

“The problem with praising kids for their innate intelligence — the “smart” compliment — is that it misrepresents the psychological reality of education. It encourages kids to avoid the most useful kind of learning activities, which is when we learn from our mistakes. Because unless we experience the unpleasant symptoms of being wrong — that surge of Pe activity a few hundred milliseconds after the error, directing our attention to the very thing we’d like to ignore — the mind will never revise its models. We’ll keep on making the same mistakes, forsaking self-improvement for the sake of self-confidence. Samuel Beckett had the right attitude: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’”

I’m a “fixed” mindset and it’s all your fault.