I think my disappointment with this book can be mostly explained by my high expectations. I heard rave things about it from a variety of people I admire and I was expecting some grand new ideas. But In the words of Jim Rohn, “You’ve got to be a little suspicious of someone who says, ‘I’ve got a new fundamental.’”
The book is implicitly about nature vs. nurture. Dweck adds nuance to the conversation by sidestepping the question of “how much is nature and how much is nature” in favor of “how much do you believe isn’t nature?” She neatly demonstrates across a variety of settings that the more you believe you can change (growth mindset) the more successful you will be. It doesn’t matter how much is nature, believing that you can do it anyway seems to make a real difference.
The basic idea is at least 2000 years old “If you can believe, all is possible” (Mark 9:23) and more recently “If you can dream it, you can become it” (Walt Disney). I think Dweck’s rise to prominence on this idea stems from two basic aspects of her writing position. One, she brings PhD credentials and substantial research to the table; two, she applies it to many situations that people may not have thought of before.
I didn’t find her credentials, or the evidence presented, particularly paradigm-changing. The evidence was decent, just not earth-shattering causal inference stuff. The book isn’t peer-reviewed research (that’s probably a good thing) and it’s got some gaps that a rigorous examination would call in to question. Similarly, her credentials are quite good (Yale-educated Stanford professor of Psychology), but not sterling (it’s psychology, what can I say! 😉).
The application aspect of the book is the most interesting. Again, I didn’t feel like most of the content was new, but there were some areas that were new to me (application in marriage and interpersonal relationships was an aspect that I hadn’t considered.) The content application stories just managed to eek the book into the inspirational half of my magic quadrant.